


A Promise

by Kattlupin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Boys In Love, Coming Out, Eiffel Tower, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff, Gay Remus Lupin, Gay Sirius Black, Getting Together, Louvre, M/M, Meet-Cute, Modern AU, New York, Paris - Freeform, Paris Fluff to be Specific, and kissing, and probably some love making, hand holding, jily, just two boys falling in love in a different country, lots of sweet hand holding, on an airplane to be specific, some mutual grieving, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:13:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 23,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23017579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kattlupin/pseuds/Kattlupin
Summary: Remus Lupin and Sirius Black are two strangers both seeking solace in solo trips to Paris. Strangers that is, until happenstance sits them together on a plane and their solo trips turn into a romantic adventure together.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 295
Kudos: 488





	1. Chapter 1

**REMUS**

“Ugh, he acts like I’m going to get kidnapped or die or something on this trip,” Remus exclaims as he buckles his seatbelt in the passenger seat of Lily’s car. He bends forward and checks his backpack for probably the tenth time since he finished packing it just mere moments before Lily arrived in the Lupins’ driveway. 

Truth be told - though he’s been unfathomably annoyed with the fuss his father has been making over him since he booked this impromptu trip to Paris - he is admittedly a little bit nervous. It’s nothing he can’t handle, and it’s not like he’s never gone anywhere before, but this is the largest trip that he has ever taken solo. And he’s not one to admit that maybe booking a cheap flight to Paris while grieving the death of his mother wasn’t necessarily the best idea. 

“He just worries, Remus,” Lily says calmly. “And can you even really blame him?”

“No,” Remus sighs. “It’s just…” he pauses and tries to collect his words. “I’m not a child anymore. Far from it, and he treats me like one. Always fussing and giving unwanted advice and input. It sets my teeth on edge. He needs to let me just be.”

Lily reaches her hand across the center council and gives Remus’s shoulder a conciliatory squeeze. “I know,” she says. “But you’re all he has left and you have to admit, this trip did come a little bit out of left field.”

“Fine, it did. But he could’ve acted a little bit less like I was dying as I left.” 

“Maybe the _Remus_ he knows is dying,” Lily says, her eyes set and focused on the light traffic in front of them. 

Remus turns and looks at his best friend. She’s always been insightful, especially at times when it will have the most impact. “That’s probably the most poignant thing you’ve ever said.”

She turns her head just enough quick enough to give him a wink before she places her eyes back on the road. “It’s true though, you’re changing a lot, Remus. And the death of your mother has only sped those things along.”

Remus frowns, his brow furrowing. “Why do you always have to be so right?” 

“It’s my charm, I guess.” She shrugs her shoulders and chances another glance at Remus. “So,” she says slowly as her eyes move forward again, “are you going to tell him when you get back?”

“I think he already knows. Mom probably told him for me. It would explain some of the awkwardness.” 

“Or, some of that awkwardness could be there because he’s waiting for his son, who he loves dearly by the way, to tell him himself that he’s gay.” Lily says all of this without sparing a glance at Remus. She does however have an annoying smirk on her face that Remus is glaring at. “I can feel your look, Remus. And it’s because you know I’m right.”

“Fine. I’ll tell him when I get back. Can we change the subject now?” Remus asks as he reaches forward again to check the location of his passport in his bag. 

“Of course,” Lily says amiably. “How about you promise to send me pictures of all the hot guys you meet over there! And find me a French husband while you’re at it.”

Remus lets out a laugh. “Okay Lily, I’ll find French husbands for the both of us.”


	2. Chapter 2

**SIRIUS**

“Fuck!” Sirius yells as he slams the door of James’s brand new BMW shut with a bang and hastily throws his shoulder bag over his seat and into the back. 

“Hey! Watch the leather, would ya?” James scolds and shifts the car into drive. “It’s not my car's fault that you waited until the last possible second to throw some shit in a bag and put pants on. You’re lucky I’m even dropping you off. Shoulda made you take the subway.”

“You wouldn’t do that to me,” Sirius says as he settles into his seat. “Besides, if you did that, we wouldn’t get to have these last precious moments together before I left.” 

“It’s not like you’re not coming back,” James says with a roll of his eyes and a quick turn at the next street. 

“Who knows?” Sirius begins to pull his hair back into a haphazard knot. “Maybe I’ll get swept off my feet by some mysterious European while I’m away, never to return again.”

“Right,” James says dryly. “Because in order for that to happen you’d have to suddenly start believing in love and all that other ‘trite’ you’re constantly complaining about.”

“I believe in love,” Sirius says defensively. “I just don’t believe it’s for me.”

“I can’t wait for the day you meet someone who changes all of that for you,” James says knowingly and a bit dreamily. 

“You know, you’ve really got it bad, James,” Sirius teases. “Did you even catch that girl's name? Or are you gonna call her that spicy redhead at your imaginary wedding?”

“Fuck off,” James laughs and playfully punches at Sirius’s shoulder. “I’ll get her name.”

“Yeah, after the nine-hundredth latte you have her make you.”

James smiles at this. “Nah, I’ll ask her after the five-hundredth. That’s a respectable amount of time.”

“Seems a bit old fashioned, but what do I know.”

“All you know is how to swipe left and right on Grindr,” James smirks. 

“Fuck off, I deleted that and you know it,” Sirius grumbles and settles in a little heavier into his seat. James just shrugs a shoulder at him. 

Truth be told, Sirius had indeed deleted the app. It turns out that hookup culture and being one of Manhattan’s hot twenty-five under twenty-five, does not mix. James could tease him all he wants, and it’s not as if Sirius hasn’t given him all the evidence to the contrary, but Sirius is actually quite lonely and would very much like to fall in love, have someone he could count on to be there for him for more reasons other than his name and families money. 

“So, are you really ready to do this?” James asks out of nowhere, breaking Sirius from his thoughts. 

“I better be,” Sirius sighs. “I’ve put it off long enough.”

“Nine months isn’t that long. And doing it on his birthday seems right,” James says with the kind of knowing confidence only ones brother in everything but blood could say to another about his actual brother. 

“Yeah,” Sirius sighs as he reaches into his pocket to pat the little velvet pouch inside. “He loved Paris. It’s what he would’ve wanted.” 

James just nods his head in agreement. 

“I can’t hold onto this little bit of him I have left forever. He deserves to be free.”

“He does,” James says and reaches his arm across the center council to give Sirius’s shoulder a brotherly squeeze. “I miss him too, you know?”

“I know,” Sirius says quietly and pats the velvet bag containing the portion of Regulus’s ashes that were allotted to him. A very small portion that he had fought tooth in nail for, determined to give his little brother something better than permanently residing on the mantel at their parents townhouse. It’s not much, but it’s enough for Sirius to feel like he’s doing right by him, something he always failed at while he was alive. 


	3. Chapter 3

**REMUS**

The reality of what Remus is doing hits him as he watches Lily drive away from where she’s left him at the airport and he’s surprised by the weight of it. He wants this trip to be freeing, cleansing, a bit of a reboot after spending the last year practically sitting vigil at his mother's bedside and helping his father cope with the slow loss of his beloved wife. 

After all of it, Remus is in need of a break, some time for himself and no one could really blame him for wanting to take that. But as he turns on his heel and walks through the mechanical doors of the airport he feels less like he’s taking a break from his life and more like he’s running away from it. And as he’s learned before, running away only works for so long, as life has longer and faster legs. 

“You’ve got this, Remus,” he says to himself and hoists his backpack a little higher onto his shoulders. He tries to reassure himself. “You’re not running away. You’re just taking—”

The sound of screeching tires stops him in his tracks and mutterings. He cringes at the sound and looks over his shoulder, curiosity getting the better of him as to who could be coming in this hot at the airport. 

And coming in hot he was. The sight of the man getting out of the car is enough to make Remus’s breath catch in his throat. He’s tall, and broad and strong in the shoulders, with glossy black hair tied loosely back. His skin is creamy with a slight hint of a five o’clock shadow that Remus usually wouldn’t go for, but looks exceedingly good on him, almost too good, and Remus wants to know what it feels like underneath his fingers. When the man shuts the car door and yells out a goodbye to whomever is inside, Remus quickly turns away, not wanting to be caught ogling this handsome stranger. 

He keeps his head down as he feels the man walk past him, his long legs making his stride quick and incredibly self assured. Remus falls into step a few yards away from him, figuring they both got dropped off at the same time in the international terminal, it’s safe to assume this man knows where he’s going, and with any luck, maybe they are even on the same flight. After all, what better way to start your ‘vacation’, Remus thinks, then with a little light flirting on an airplane, assuming that this man is not only on his flight, but also swings in the same direction as Remus. 

His hopes for light flirting are dashed rather quickly once he’s standing in line a few people behind this man whom Remus has decided is a god descended from the heavens, whatever those may be. He’s not even that surprised with the attention he’s getting, he is truly a gorgeous sight. But the way the group of twenty something ‘Becky’s’ are practically hanging off and snapping selfies with him, seem to be taking it a bit too far. 

Remus sighs. It had been a bit absurd for him to already be planning a romantic meet-cute on an airplane with the first man he found attractive at the airport, but he is a romantic, one of the last of a dying breed from what he could tell in today’s overly cynical culture. The dream, no matter how brief, was worth the respite that it had provided. 


	4. Chapter 4

**SIRIUS**

Getting through security was more of a hassle than Sirius thought possible and he makes a mental note to murder Marlene when he gets back to New York for having him included on that damn list and subsequent article. Now he can’t even get on a plane without a gaggle of girls fawning over him and trying to get him to ask for their number. It’s as if they all missed the part that mentioned he was gay. 

Well, mentioned is a bit of an exaggeration. It was more of an alluding to. Something Marlene guaranteed the right people would catch without it affecting his standing with the wrong people. Not that Sirius cares. He’s long past trying to impress the _wrong_ people. The _wrong_ people were the cause of Regulus’s death no matter how much they deny it. Yet Marlene insisted it was the right choice if Sirius wants to remain on track to become the youngest music mogul New York has seen in ages. 

He flops down onto one of the hard, faded vinyl seats near the gate his flight is departing from and pulls out his phone to idly scroll through Instagram while he waits to board. He’s two swipes of his thumb in before the little red notifications at the bottom of the screen alerts him to 298 likes, 43 comments, and 6 tags. He rolls his eyes, knowing exactly what he’ll see before he even checks. Sure enough, he’s right, the girls who accosted him in line have already tagged him on Instagram, using his image to make their lives look more glamorous. He quickly shuts his phone off and puts it down, muttering a quick ‘ _goddamnit_ ’ under his breath. 

He reaches into his bag and pulls out his sunglasses, hoping that they will provide him with some semblance of anonymity in an attempt to keep himself from being recognized. He slouches down a bit in his chair and places his hands back into his coat pocket, gently patting the little velvet bag inside. 

With his eyes shielded and his phone no longer in his hand as a distraction, Sirius looks around the terminal. It’s filling up quickly and people are meandering around aimlessly, as if that will get them on the plane any faster, and most of them look somewhat lost and anxious for travel. Sirius, happy to have his eyes covered (though even if they weren’t, he’d likely roll them at all of them anyways), scoffs at everything he observes. 

Everything except for the golden haired man standing across the terminal from him with a book in his hand, who catches Sirius’s rolling eyes as they settled back into their places. Sirius is transfixed by the man that he sees. It’s not just his hair that is golden, but his skin as well and even from here, Sirius can see a fair bit of caramel colored freckles splattering enticingly across his cheeks as the sun streaming through the window shines down on him like a beacon. He’s slight, definitely smaller than Sirius by more than just a few inches, which is fine by Sirius, who at six one, likes being taller than most, and the mans frame is lithe and stemmed with just the kind of legs that Sirius likes having wrapped around his waist during a hot and heavy session in the bedroom. 

Sirius lets out a low and almost silent whistle, then quietly says to his brother, “Regulus, if you’re listening, and you have any control over my flight, please put this man on it, preferably with a seat next to mine.”


	5. Chapter 5

**REMUS**

_There really is a god,_ Remus thinks to himself as he finds that his seat on the plane is beside the beautiful man from outside. _Who cares if he’s not gay, and completely out of my league for that matter,_ Remus continues to think, _he’s still pretty to look at._

“That’s me,” Remus says effectively grabbing the man's attention and then gestures to the middle seat. 

“Oh,” the man says, looking up at Remus in surprise. His eyes are piercing and stormy grey and Remus feels like he wants to look away from their intensity, but quickly finds that he cannot. “What a nice surprise.”

“Surprise? What, sitting next to me?” Remus asks as he hoists his backpack up into the overhead bin. _If anyone should be surprised, it should be me_ , Remus thinks. Especially after having sworn off his inane idea for having this man fall for his wiles somewhere over the Atlantic. “Believe me, I’m nothing to be surprised over.” 

“Well, we have around six hours for me to be the judge of that.”

Remus raises an inquisitive eyebrow. _Was that flirting?_ he wonders. Maybe his overblown romantic fantasies weren’t so hopeless after all. He shuffles into his seat, not so discreetly wiggling his backside as he does. Never hurts to give a slightly more obvious signal when one is limited in time on getting to know someone. Besides, this man had started it. 

“Sirius,” the man says as he settles back into his seat and extends out his hand. 

“Serious about what?” Remus asks, slotting his hand into the other man's palm, his smaller fingers making as strong of a grip as they can. 

“No, that’s my name. Sirius,” he says with what sounds like a bit of practiced correction. No doubt from having to correct people every time he introduces himself. 

“Oh!” Remus says, then cringes. “Sorry. I should know better. My name’s Remus,” he explains then continues, “I’m guessing you haven’t come across any others.”

“No,” Sirius laughs a laugh that instantly brightens the atmosphere. “I did meet a Romulus once though. At a gay bar in Queens, but that’s a story for another day.”

“You would deny me such a tale about my older wolf brother, how dare you?” Remus jokes and shakes his head. “And here I thought we were going to get along famously.”

“If it’s tales you want, I’ll tell you,” Sirius says and gives Remus a conspiratorial look that Remus can’t quite decipher. “But I thought we could start with the simple get to know you’s first.”


	6. Chapter 6

**SIRIUS**

If Sirius needs a sign that he had made the right decision in booking this trip at the very last minute, Remus Lupin is it. The hours long flight, which he normally would’ve napped happily away in first class, is made that much more enjoyable by the company that the ticketing gods, or maybe Regulus, who knows, has bestowed upon him. 

Remus is a breath of fresh air. He’s youthful and witty, making him just the right amount of sarcastic and quick to pick up on Sirius’s jokes, maintaining an easy banter between the two. 

He’s real and unassuming and Sirius is pretty sure that Remus has no idea who Sirius is. Which in and of itself is a relief. 

Sirius is admittedly completely enthralled by Remus and even finds himself slightly envious of the simple barista slash student life that Remus is living. _What is it about baristas_ , Sirius wonders. _First James and now me_. Wouldn’t it be crazy if Remus worked with a certain redhead that his best friend was currently pining over? 

“Believe me, slinging lattes is not as ideal as it seems,” Remus says. “But it does keep me well supplied in caffeine so I can maintain my GPA and hopefully get into a good graduate program.”

“I’m sure you will. You seem like a pretty smart guy,” Sirius assures. He himself had breezed through college, graduating from NYU in exactly four years. Though that’s a much easier feat when you don’t have to work and study at the same time, and his years at expensive boarding schools before that pretty much set him up for whatever successes he aimed for when the last name of Black wasn’t quite enough to do the trick. 

“Let’s hope so,” Remus says. “I could use some good news this year.”

“Bit of a rough one?” Sirius asks, his mind flashing bits and pieces of the rough year he himself has been experiencing. 

“More than a bit,” Remus sighs and Sirius catches the weight of his sadness in his chest. That sigh is familiar. It’s one that only comes from people who’ve seen death. 

“That makes two of us,” Sirius says with an equally heavy sigh as he grabs Remus’s hand and gives it a squeeze. The squeeze says what Sirius cannot at this moment. A simple signal to let Remus know that they are grieving together, even if it is for separate people. 

“Sorry,” Remus says quickly and self consciously, but to Sirius’s relief he doesn’t pull his hand away. “I didn’t mean to get all serious on main.”

“Didn’t mean to get _serious,_ huh?” Sirius jokes happy to have a reason to clear the air again. 

“Oh, shut up,” Remus laughs, the sound echoing and very effectively filling the hole that had settled into Sirius chest at the news of his brothers death all those months ago. 

Sirius turns to look at him directly and smiles when he notices that Remus is looking at him as well. His eyes golden and warm to match the rest of him, glistening just slightly with the last little lingering bit of sadness the two had let creep out between them. Sirius squeezes his hand again and let’s silence fill the space around them. And for the first time in months, Sirius feels like his feet are truly steady underneath him. 


	7. Chapter 7

**REMUS**

Never in Remus’s life, though his experience with travel was limited, did he ever expect to be disappointed when a flight ended. Even with his slighter stature, he finds the seats uncomfortable and cramped and downright torture to have to sit in for more than thirty minutes. He has no idea how Sirius has managed to stand from his seat looking completely unrumpled and just as visually appealing as he was when he first arrived at the airport in a hurry. 

“So, I guess this it,” Remus says at the same time Sirius says, “I never caught where it was that you are staying.”

“Oh,” Remus flushes, half in his surprise that Sirius is showing interest in seeing him again, and half because he doesn’t want to have to admit where it is that he is staying. Not that there's anything wrong with staying at one of the youth hostels, but Remus is under the impression from the hours long conversation that the two of them shared on the flight that Sirius is one who would usually travel in style and definitely luxury. “I’m staying at a hostel in the 1st. Arrondissement.”

“Excellent,” Sirius says and Remus notes the genuine smile on his face and in his voice. “I’m staying at a hotel in the 6th. Perhaps I can talk you into a trip to the Louvre. I need to go there anyway.”

“It’s on my list,” Remus says. “But I don’t want to impose on your trip.” Which is a lie. Remus would very much like to impose on Sirius’s trip.

“It wouldn’t be an imposition,” Sirius assures, and the self conscious part of Remus, who’s not particularly used to having such pleasant and easy interactions with tall handsome men he’d like nothing more than to wrap his legs around, is temporarily placated. 

“Well, in that case, I’d love too.”

“Great!” Sirius says, nodding his head eagerly and pulling out his phone. “I’ll book us some tickets for tomorrow. You wanna meet me out front?”

“Sure,” Remus agrees. “But if you’re buying tickets, then I’ll supply the croissants.”

“How very Parisian of you,” Sirius jests with an eyebrow raised. “I just need to get your number.”

“Yes, that would probably be a good idea,” Remus says and feels his face flush brightly for the second time in as many minutes as he pulls his own phone from his back pocket. He’s giddy with excitement as the two of them exchange numbers. In his mind, this trip has already been worth the month of wages that he spent on it if only for the flight and the promise of art and croissants with Sirius the next day. 

“Alright, it’s a date. I’ll see you tomorrow, around 10am?” 

“Who am I to dictate? You’re the one buying the tickets,” Remus points out

“Touché,” Sirius says, then adds, “in that case, I expect prompt arrival with my breakfast.”

“Ah,” Remus scoffs with a hand on his heart. “We’re just getting started and you’re already making such high demands.”

“If you think that’s a demand, then you are in for a real surprise with me if you play your cards right, Remus Lupin,” Sirius toys, drawing out their flirtatious banter and Remus is grateful for it. 

He’s not quite ready to leave Sirius for the day and he has no idea how to even end their endless stream of easy and fluently natural way of holding space together. It’s as if Remus knows that after having met Sirius, he’ll never quite be the same once he’s away from him. 

_What will Lily say?_ he thinks to himself as he and Sirius maintain their eye contact in silence for a beat too long to not be considered mutual stalling. It’s ironic really that he came all the way to France to have his first date in ages be with another New Yorker. 


	8. Chapter 8

**SIRIUS**

What a turn of events meeting Remus on the plane had been. This trip was meant to be a somber affair, a trip for Sirius to drown the last remaining bits of his guilt and perhaps even find peace and a little less sorrow in regards to his brother. 

It’s not until Sirius is in a taxi heading towards his hotel that he begins to lament this fact. And now for an even more selfish reason outside of his immediate attraction to Remus, and subsequent delightful six hour flight, Sirius desperately wishes Remus would’ve accepted his offer to share a taxi into Paris central instead of Remus insisting that he would take public transportation as he was traveling on a strict budget. 

Sirius, of course, isn’t traveling on anything that even resembles a budget and he’d have been more than happy to pay the entire taxi fare, no questions asked. Hell, Sirius can honestly say he’d be fine paying for the entirety of Remus’s stay in Paris, including having him stay in his sweet at the Le Marquis. But something in the way that Remus spoke and the look of abject acceptance of his meager travel allowance, told Sirius something vital he needed to know about Remus. That he wasn’t someone who let money determine his opinions about somebody and if Sirius would have insisted on footing the bill to make Remus’s trip more extravagant, even if that extravagance meant copious amounts of time tumbling naked in a luxury hotel room bed, Remus would most likely lose all interest in Sirius and toss him to the side, leaving him with the rest of the over-privileged and over-indulged entitled pricks who live under the assumption that money is enough to make everyone fall at your feet. 

Remus, Sirius can already tell, is not that kind of man and if Sirius wants to continue to impress him— which he absolutely does— he’s going to have to do it by being himself and relying on something other than his name and money. And with everything that Sirius has been through with the death of his brother, he worries that the husk of a man that he currently is underneath the delicate facade that he functions under, might not be up to the task. 

He sighs a tired and heavy sigh as he lets his hair loose of the messy bun that’s been holding it away from his face and simultaneously giving him a headache. He rubs at his scalp and gently tugs at the silky black strands and wonders what Remus’s enticingly slender fingers would feel like doing this for him instead. Would he find the comfort he so desperately needs from that touch? He had a teasing taste of it on the plane when the two sat in an extended moment of shared silence. Remus is grieving as well, Sirius just doesn’t know for what or for who, but he felt it. And to know that he isn’t alone in this is enough to help strengthen his resolve and make him feel a bit like his old self. Remus feels like a gift, a true surprise someone has given him that he hadn’t realized he wanted. It makes him wonder if maybe their meeting wasn’t just mere happenstance. 

“I’m sorry, Regulus’s,” he says, low enough that his driver won’t be able to hear him. “I know this trip was supposed to be just me and you, but I can’t do it alone and I can’t help but wonder if maybe you delivered Remus to me to help.”


	9. Chapter 9

**REMUS**

Sitting on the train listening to the indecipherable chatterings of the people around him, Remus can’t help but think of his mother. Not that he should be surprised, after all this was her favorite city in the world and one she talked about often despite having only been able to visit it once when she and Remus’s father, Lyall, had honeymooned here. But it had obviously left an indelible impression, and the way she always talked about it had fueled, if not indirectly caused Remus’s internalized romanticization of not just Paris, but life itself. 

It’s that line of thinking that has him blushing on the train as he replays the events of the day in his head. Surely being sat next to Sirius was more than coincidental or just plain luck. It had to be more significant than that. Significant like Sirius being named for a star and Remus being loosely named for the moon. A name to represent something as large as the glowing satellite that swings around the earth, always accompanying it on its journey through the universe. A name as large as the myths and epics of Ancient Rome, from its inception all the way through to its downfall and everything in between. His name was his mother’s first imprint in influencing his romantic nature, after all. 

She was a woman obsessed with tales and stories of all sorts of incredible things. The wilder and more unlikely the events, the more she related and loved them, clung to them in her constant dreamy state. A state that plenty judged and looked down upon, calling her flighty and soft at heart for how deeply she felt things and let fictional worlds, no matter how real and tangible they felt to her, influence her days and the way that she functioned. She was able to spin and create vivid worlds in her mind and had a way with words that when she described these worlds would leave the listener breathless. And it was these things that Remus and his father loved most about her. 

“You should’ve been an author, Hope,” Lyall had always told her and Remus always agreed. Agreed so much in fact that it influenced his chosen major and desire to someday write a story and create a world of his own. 

Though deep down inside he’s always doubted himself. Who was he to create vivid and bold new worlds, to write feelings and emotions and a life he himself has never experienced? 

When he and Lily had been stuck at the coffee shop, working an uncharacteristically slow shift on a Sunday and decided to pipe dream about fantastic adventures, he accidentally stumbled across an ad for cheap tickets to Paris. 

“Go,” Lily had encouraged in a way that sounded so distinctly like his mother that he felt her spirit in his soul and before he knew it, had punched in the numbers of his credit card that he was supposed to be pretending didn’t exist. And now a month later, here he is chasing his mother's ghost around Paris when his initial intention was to temporarily run away from the hole that her death left in his heart. 

But like her name had always suggested, instead of feeling disheartened by this turn of events, and perhaps with the help of the serendipitous meeting of Sirius on the plane, Remus finally feels hope for his current state and the renewed rumblings of the desire to dream big again. 


	10. Chapter 10

**SIRIUS**

All of this was supposed to be simple— well, as simple as grieving could ever be. Visit Paris, Regulus’s favorite city, and leave a sprinkling of his ashes throughout it, so that he can remain here, at least metaphorically forever. That was his dream after all, and Sirius isn’t going to let something as permanent as death get in the way of Regulus getting to live the life that he wanted. He tries not to think too hard on the fact that he’s only carrying a small portion of him. 

Walburga and Orion Black remained unwaveringly insistent that this was a ridiculous idea and the complete opposite of anything Regulus would have wanted. To which Sirius emphatically argued that what Regulus really would’ve wanted was to remain alive and not be dead, regardless of where he was living. 

That argument had not gone over well, for more than a few reasons. Reason number one, and Sirius will also argue that this is probably the most important of the reasons, is that Walburga and Orion Black, no matter how much they deny it, are responsible for Regulus’s death. So in Sirius’s eyes, he could really give fuck all about what it is that they think should be done with Regulus’s ashes. And what they think should be done is to keep him placed on the mantel in the library of their brownstone townhouse, from now until god knows when, despite the fact that both Sirius and Regulus loathed the place from early childhood. Sirius had managed to get away at the first opportunity that presented itself and only dealt with his family when he had to. Regulus on the other hand, had stayed, but would keep Sirius up until all hours of the night texting him his dreams and plans for something different. 

Sirius was working hard to help Regulus who just couldn’t seem to get himself out from underneath the proverbial thumb of their family. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much pleading he did, he just couldn’t get Regulus to cut the cord, and that proved to be his undoing.

Sadly, Sirius wasn’t even that surprised when he got the call informing him that Regulus had died. It really was only a matter of time before the good old boys club claimed another member. 

Part of growing up in an influential family is that you are always connected to other influential families and their degenerate children. And you really don’t have to look at it too critically to see the recipe for disaster that this creates. Friendships formed between young men with two much money, too much time, and too little consequences will always end in tragedy. And finding out that Regulus died in the passenger seat of the younger Lestrange brothers car, after a night of partying and celebrating the arranged marriage between Sirius’s cousin Bellatrix and the eldest son of Orion’s business partner, made Regulus’s death that much more tragic. 

Even more tragic when Sirius chooses to dwell for too long about the fact that he didn’t insist that Regulus leave the party with him that night. Sirius had stopped by, made a quick appearance in an effort to avoid the fight that would have occurred if he hadn’t. By the time Sirius got there, Regulus was already half in the bag in a blatant attempt to make himself appear to be having a good time. Sirius had told him to slow down, tried to give him some water and a little extra food to help fill up his stomach along with a ride home, but it was a lost cause. 

Regulus in his drunken state had pushed Sirius out of the way and continued his  _ celebration _ of their cousin's engagement. He told Sirius to fuck off like he always had, leaving Regulus behind, and Sirius was too hurt and too naive to think that this squabble between brothers would be the last he’d ever get to have. 

In the weeks that followed his death, Sirius could hardly cope and on more than one occasion thought it was possible to find hope at the bottom of an empty bottle. It was James who pulled him out of his stupor, did the thing for Sirius that Sirius (in his opinion) had tried not hard enough to do for Regulus. Together they worked out a plan for this trip for Sirius to take when he was ready. He only really felt half ready when he booked the trip, but with Regulus’s birthday around the corner it felt like an appropriate final gift to give him. 

He rolls all of this over in his mind on a continuous loop while tossing and turning in his sheets, hoping to be lulled to sleep. But sleep isn’t coming. He checks the time on his phone and notices it’s still reasonably early. Early enough to text a certain someone who’d managed to give his tired mind a bit of a respite on a plane and have it not seem like a late night proposition if he words it properly. 


	11. Chapter 11

**REMUS**

The sound of the ping on Remus’s phone turns out to be a very welcomed distraction as he lies in a bed smaller than the one he slept in as a child, listening to the intermittent snores of the other five inhabitants of the room. All of which had stumbled in drunkenly, muttering and singing in what Remus thinks is German, around an hour ago. 

He’d been fast asleep when they came crashing in. Their behavior confirming to Remus that drunken heterosexual males all behave the same way no matter the culture— arms either slung around each other or punching at each others shoulders and crotches, careful to not make eye contact, that would make it all seem weird. Remus tried to pretend to be asleep. He’s not sure that they believed him, but he really doesn’t care. He knew from the moment he had checked into the hostel and been shown to his room, his eyes taking in the disastrous way that their belongings were strewn about, that these were the types of ‘boys’ Remus is remiss to associate with. 

The sender of the text however  _ is _ the type of man that Remus is wholly prepared to associate with. Charming, respectful, a bit unpredictable, perhaps even impulsive, but that just makes Sirius all the more appealing. And upon reading his text, Remus learns two things. One, Sirius is definitely interested in him, and two, questions concerning Remus’s safety and whether or not he made it to the hostel alright are heartwarming when they come from the man you are crushing on instead of your father. Remus will worry about what this paradox means at a later time. For right now, he’d much rather let himself get wrapped up in the blanket that is mutual attraction.

He texts Sirius back and lets him know that he did indeed make it in alright, and had enjoyed a cappuccino and a baguette with a wonderful view of the inhabitants of Paris going about their afternoons, then came back to the hostel and promptly passed out from the type of deep exhaustion that only traveling and jumping five time zones can create. But now, after being abruptly awoken by the room’s other inhabitants and his body remembering that it’s only early evening back home, he’s wide awake. 

Sirius expresses sympathy for Remus’s plight and also points out that he’s in the same boat, minus having to share a room with a bunch of drunken germans. Remus laughs at this and blushes slightly as his mind begins to wonder if maybe he could be bold enough to just stay with Sirius instead. It would be far more romantic, and after all, romance, is one of the things he came here for. But Remus is not that kind of man, or so he likes to tell himself, because there's a difference between not shacking up with someone on purpose and just never having been given the opportunity. He’s not about to admit to himself that the latter is the reason why. He will however admit, that if Sirius were to ask, he’d stay with him in a heartbeat, after half heartedly refusing three times, of course. Now it was just a matter of waiting for that invitation. 

So here he is, lying in the bottom bunk of a tiny and lumpy bed, glowing by the light of his phone and by the light of Sirius located on the other side of the River Seine from him. By the time his cheeks have gotten sore from smiling, and his eyes have grown tired again, and Sirius has texted him a goodnight complete with a little yellow moon and star that makes him want to squeal, Remus finds that he’s able to sleep with the ghost of a smile on his face for the first time in ages.


	12. Chapter 12

**SIRIUS**

Waking the next morning turns out to be quite easy for Sirius despite the jet lag. Apparently the promise of getting to glimpse artistic masterpieces, eat a croissant, and spend the day with Remus Lupin are enough for him to jump out of bed with renewed vigor. 

He dresses himself quickly in a pair of black skinny jeans, an old Kinks t-shirt, and black converse instead of his heavy back boots since he’ll be walking all day. He throws his leather jacket over his shoulders and slips his passport and wallet into its inside pocket, then grabs his phone. He stops and looks at the little velvet package of Regulus that he had delicately placed on the desk looking out of one of the suites many windows. “Wish me luck, Reg,” he says, then heads out the door of his suite. 

Sirius sits in the lobby of the hotel, his right leg bouncing up and down as he sips his espresso and waits for the taxi that he had requested with the concierge to arrive. He could walk, but in an effort to not be late and to not arrive on already tired legs, he opts for the ride and hopes that Remus doesn’t have to travel too far from where he is staying. Sirius knows all too well how quickly one's legs get tired when walking around Paris, the Louvre, and any of its other museums and attractions. 

He knows Paris well enough, or at least he did anyway, as he and Regulus used to spend a portion of their summers here, staying with their Uncle Alphard. It was some of the best memories of his childhood and most likely the main reason as to why Regulus had wanted to live here in the first place. 

When the taxi arrives Sirius springs to his feet for the second time today and gets into the cab with more gusto than his usually cool persona would allow. He doesn’t care. He’s nobody here and truth be told he wishes that he was nobody back in New York as well. But that’s not quite the case, nor will it ever be. But for now, he’ll happily sit in the back of this cab looking out the window and enjoy the anonymity of this fair city.

It’s from this window that he gets his next glance of Remus when the driver makes the final turn to get to the Louvre. Remus is walking, one hand carrying a pastry bag, the other holding his phone as he looks at it, probably trying to decipher if he’s headed in the right direction. Sirius smiles and instructs the driver to stop. He pays the man quickly and jumps out of the taxi even quicker. 

Remus has stopped in his tracks and is spinning slowly around, looking from his phone and then back at his surroundings. 

“Bonjour!” Sirius yells as he shuts the door of the taxi and raises a hand in Remus’s direction. Remus turns toward him with a look of confusion on his face that quickly softens into something more friendly and dear. 

“Bonjour,” he says to Sirius with a smile and wave from a hand holding a bag of presumably croissants. To Sirius’s delight, Remus looks just as happy as Sirius feels to see him again. 


	13. Chapter 13

**REMUS**

Even when one takes into account all of the wonderful and beautiful things that Remus has seen since his arrival in Paris yesterday, nothing compares to the sight of Sirius stepping out of a taxi and calling his name. There’s something about the air in Paris that makes everything feel that much more substantial, significant and like it was meant to be. It’s possible that Remus has in the past walked by Sirius stepping out of a taxi before in New York, he’ll never know for sure, nor does he care if he had. Because right now, Sirius is walking towards him with a beatific grin on his face and undeniable swagger in his step, and the century old buildings of Paris behind him. 

“Bonjour,” Remus says, pronouncing the consonants just a hair too hard. Perhaps rightfully, the language still feels quite foriegn on his tongue. He’s been assured that after a few days, the basics will feel a bit more natural and not quite so out of place, though right now he’s not sure if that’s true. Especially not after he had struggled so painfully when ordering the croissants for him and Sirius. He was horribly embarrassed, especially when one considers that he works in a coffee shop back home. It’s not as if he’s never seen or said croissant before. 

“Here.” Remus extends his hand containing the little bag of treats. “I didn’t know what you liked, so there’s a plain and a pain au chocolat in there. Feel free to take your pick, I’ll happily eat what's left.”

“Thanks,” Sirius says as he grabs the bag, opens it up and takes his pick. To Remus’s delight, he grabbed the plain, leaving the chocolate for himself. Not that Remus would have complained, he’d happily have eaten the other one as he had said, but when push comes to shove, Remus is a chocolate man at heart. 

“So, have you been here before?” Remus asks presuming that he already knows the answer, but eager to start up conversation.

“I have,” Sirius says around a bite of his croissant. “But not in a very long time.”

“Is there anything in particular that you remember that you’d like to see?” Remus asks, then takes a bite of his treat. He hums in contentment as the flaky, buttery and perfectly chocolate concoction mixes together in his mouth.

“Good, right?”

“Yes, fucking heavenly.” Remus can’t contain himself and takes another bite.

“I’m glad my instincts were right and I let you have the chocolate.” Sirius gives Remus a little wink, then nods his head in the direction of where it is that they need to go.

The landmark glass pyramid entrance comes into view as they round the corner, along with the large queue that has already formed to permit entrance. 

“Well, this is gonna take forever,” Remus says, not in a bad way, just pointing out the obvious.

“It moves pretty quick,” Sirius assures. “Besides, I already purchased our tickets and that line gets priority.”

“I guess I picked the right tour guide,” Remus says with a little flirting hint to his tone and a hopeful smile curling at his lips.

“Or, did I pick the right person to take on a tour?” Sirius jests.

“Oh, touché,” Remus laughs, and the hopeful smile turns into a full and genuine one. He might be being a bit presumptuous, but he can’t help but think that this is what his mother had meant when she told him that Paris was a great place to fall in love.


	14. Chapter 14

**SIRIUS**

Truth be told, Sirius hadn’t actually planned on going to the Louvre on this trip. He’d been before and though a few things in there stood out in his memory as something beautiful or wonderful or just plain impressive to see, nothing was really calling him to go back. Nothing that is, until the miraculous arrival of Remus Lupin into his life. When he’d extended the invitation to Remus to go with him, his sole motivation in doing so was so he could see the look of wonderment that only a place like the Louvre could inspire onto Remus’s face.

He’s not one-hundred percent sure, but he is pretty positive, that wonderment is an expression that Remus will wear very well. And from the moment that they walk into the first gallery— a long stretching hall filled with sculptures from Roman times— Sirius’s suspicions are satisfyingly confirmed. Remus looks completely in awe of what he sees. 

“I should’ve saved this part for last,” Sirius muses as he takes in the sight that is Remus instead of the millenium old pieces of intricately cut and polished marble. Sirius is not disappointed in his choice. 

“This is incredible,” Remus says, his eyes as wide as saucers as he looks around. “There’s so much.”

“Oh, this is just the beginning,” Sirius says and grabs a hold of Remus’s hand before saying, “Come on.”

“You’re the expert,” Remus shrugs and gives Sirius’s hand a little squeeze. The kind of squeeze that lets Sirius know that he can probably hold Remus’s hand forever if he gets this right. And yes, he would absolutely love to get this right.

“This way,” Sirius says and leads Remus through the growing crowd. “Most of the people who come here will crowd around the big name pieces and will miss everything else.”

“Are we skipping the big pieces then?”

“No, of course not,” Sirius corrects. “But you’ll see what I mean.”

“Okay,” Remus agrees amiably. “You are in charge of this tour after all.”

And it is quite the tour that Sirius gives him, not that he’s an expert by any means, but he knows just the right things to say to make Remus laugh at images they probably shouldn’t be laughing at, or the poignant words to encapsulate the feeling when a truly spectacular piece of art enraptures them. He toes that fine line, straddles the two worlds he’s been a part of with ease and elegance that few others can. Using pieces of his affluent upbringing to drop just the right amount of knowledge to sound informed and not pretentious and mixes it with some of his signature rebellion by declaring that the Mona Lisa is not worth the hype.

“I’d say you were right, if I could actually see it,” Remus laughs as he tries to crane his neck high enough to see over the crowd that stretches all the way to the back of the gallery where what is arguably the most famous painting in the world is housed. “Why would they display it like this? And are those people taking selfies?”

Sirius shakes his head and lets out a jovial laugh. “You know they are. Gotta make their friends at home jealous.”

“Call me crazy, or maybe I just don’t have enough friends, but that’s never really been something I’ve ever been interested in doing,” Remus says while he tries to take a few little jumps to get a better glimpse. After the third try, he stops, looks at Sirius and shakes his head. “Why try to fake a life when you have a real one to live?”

“You know, Remus, I’ve been thinking the exact same thing lately.” And it’s true, he has been. Ever since that article came out and he was thrust into an even bigger spotlight with people manipulating his image around him, trying to get him to appear to be more. More approachable, but also untouchable. More successful and chasing the _unattainable_ dream, so that when he does grab it, Marlene and the rest of her marketing team can spin it to make Sirius more of a success story, someone for the average New Yorker to wish that they were. 

But that’s not who Sirius wants to be, at least not anymore. Not since he’s gotten a glimpse of exactly what being that kind of person means. 

“So is it safe to say that you don’t want a selfie with Miss Mona Lisa?” Sirius jokes.

“God no!” Remus scoffs. “Honestly, I’d be far happier in a much smaller and quieter museum where I could look at some art in peace.”

“Is that so?” Sirius asks with a mischievous grin on his face. “Then I think I have just the solution. Do you think you have another museum in you today?”

“With you?” Remus turns to look at him and gives Sirius a matching smirk. “Absolutely.”


	15. Chapter 15

**REMUS**

In Remus’s opinion, today is going brilliantly. Better than according to plan, especially when one considers that it wasn’t actually his plan, it was Sirius’s. Sirius had asked him to go to the Louvre, Sirius had been the one to call it a date first— and Remus doesn’t believe that he meant the words in the casual sense. So to have Sirius want to extend their date into the afternoon and maybe, if Remus is lucky, the evening, well who is he to complain? And he definitely isn’t complaining when Sirius grabs his hand for the second time today. 

Walking into the grand entrance of the Musée D’Orsay is impressive in an entirely different sense than the Louvre. This place is tall, wide and open with light streaming in through the large windows, some of which are clear and others that are stained in rich colors. It still holds some of that opulent feel of the old railway station that it used to be, but it blends so nicely and seamlessly with the rich modern flair that's been added to update the place, as well as the galleries of impressionist and postmodernism paintings. All of which fall under the category of the types of art Remus truly enjoys.

“This way,” Sirius says with a gentle pull on Remus’s hand. “We’ll start at the top and work our way down.”

“What’s at the top?”

“You’ll see,” Sirius says and gives Remus a wink that makes him weak in the knees.

And see, Remus does. Together, and hand-in-hand they wind their way around the much less intricate and maze-like building. This place is far more organized and way less crowded, making it much easier to move around. 

It’s as they move around the place that Remus begins to understand how to read the quiet language of Sirius. He’s already grown familiar with the louder, more extraverted way that Sirius speaks. But he has a softer, silent way of communicating that Remus is beginning to notice. Like he’ll point and tell Remus to look at the landscapes created by Claude Monet, but the way his thumb rubs up and down and across Remus’s knuckles as they take in the fiery image of a sunset over parliament, alerts Remus that it’s Sirius’s favorite over the more traditional floral and watery scenes that Monet is known for. He does the same as they take in the small gallery filled with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a simple hand hold with the occasional brushing back and forth of his thumb. When they get to the Van Gogh’s, an artist that Remus believes is truly overrated, he’s relieved to note that Sirius feels the same when his thumb remains static and in place.

By the time they are through, Remus is both intoxicated by the sights that he’s seen and by the steady and sure footed presence of Sirius Black at his side. Sirius’s suggestion to come here was truly a marvelous one. Without him, Remus doubts that he would’ve even known what existed inside. 

“Thank you,” Remus says, his voice sincere and heartfelt to match how full his heart is at this moment.

“You’re welcome,” Sirius laughs, but Remus takes no offense. “Are you hungry?”

“Very much so,” Remus responds because he truly is hungry, not just for food but for Sirius as well.


	16. Chapter 16

**SIRIUS**

The internal sigh of delighted relief that Sirius lets out when Remus agrees to go grab food with him is intense enough to make his cheeks blush. Normally he’d find something like this embarrassing, but there’s something about Remus, maybe it’s his own sort of quiet calm or the way that he is shamelessly unabashed, that makes Sirius not so self conscious in matters of outwardly showing his heart. In Sirius’s eyes, Remus moves through life with relative ease, a dignified acceptance for the hand that life has dealt him. And that air about Remus puts Sirius completely at ease as well.

Remus isn’t like anyone else that Sirius has ever met. Not that it’s surprising since the circles that Sirius runs in come from a far different corner of New York than Remus. Sirius suddenly wishes that he would’ve spent more time in those corners, but he guesses that if he had, Remus might have seen him differently. Perhaps Paris was always meant to bring them together.

“Do you find it strange that we’ve never crossed paths before?” Remus asks as he takes a sip of the glass white wine that their server has just poured for him. “I mean, I know New York is big, but we surely must have been in the same place at least a few times.”

“Maybe we just didn’t notice each other,” Sirius says, sipping at his wine as well. “It’s hard to see what’s in front of you when you’re living the daily grind.”

“That’s true,” Remus agrees, then takes his eyes off of Sirius to look out into the streets of Paris from their sidewalk table. “Have you noticed that they don’t live like that here?”

“Like us?” Sirius says and looks out into the street as well. He has in fact noticed that. He always has, even as a child, and there’s no doubt in his mind that that was one of the main reasons Regulus had wanted to move to Paris. “They definitely do things differently here.”

“Do you think it ever gets old?”

“What, living a more relaxed life? Prioritizing joy over money? I hope it doesn’t,” Sirius says with a sigh as an image of what Regulus would’ve looked like doing this exact thing had life not gone awry flits through his mind. 

“Me too,” Remus says a bit dreamily. “Do you think you would ever want to live here?”

“One date and you’re already proposing we become expats together,” Sirius teases. “And the answer to your question is yes.”

“You’d want to live here?”

“With you? Absolutely,” Sirius says with his signature wink, the one that always gets him a leg up on everything. He figures that it will make Remus think that he is just flirting, when actually absconding to a foriegn country and forgetting all of his problems back home in America is a pretty damn good idea. Who cares that they’ve only known each other for two days. 

Remus narrows his eyes at Sirius in a way that Sirius finds far more sexy than intimidating. “Better watch out Sirius, I might call your bluff.”

“Not in any hurry to go back home either?”

“No,” Remus says and shakes his head. Sirius watches his features turn down slightly as he furrows his brow in thought. “I wish I would’ve done this sooner, maybe even taken her with me.”

The mention of a her causes Sirius’s stomach to drop and he begins to second guess whether or not he’s been reading the signals wrong. “Her,” he questions softly.

“My mother,” Remus says sadly. Sirius is relieved for just a brief moment but then quickly saddened at the realization that it’s Remus's mother that Remus is grieving. He reaches across the small table and places one of Remus’s hands inside of his and lets his thumb run across Remus’s knuckles.


	17. Chapter 17

**REMUS**

Remus hadn’t realized how much he needed to speak about her aloud until the words came tumbling out of him. It surprises him how easy it is to tell Sirius about her. To be able to tell someone who’d never met her all of the wonderful and magical things that she was. And it pleases Remus to witness Sirius listen to him with such rapt attention. He feels seen in a way that he hasn’t since her passing. 

Hope Lupin was always able to read Remus like a book, making it so he was never able to hide anything from her. And even when he thought he was finally slipping something past her, she called him out on it just mere days before her passing, informing him that she’d always known he was gay and encouraging him to find the courage to love freely. 

He smiles a little to himself and thinks about how pleased she truly would’ve been about this little turn of events and figures it’s quite possible that she’s here with him right now, in spirit at the very least.

“She sounds lovely,” Sirius says.

“She really was.”

“So is that what brought you here? Her love for this city.”

It is,” Remus says and nods his head, his eyes locked with Sirius’s.

“Would it frighten you if I told you I was here for similar reasons as well?”

“No,” Remus says honestly, because it doesn’t. He’d sensed the sadness that only comes with the deep grieving of a loved one coming off of Sirius on the plane just as he’s sure that Sirius felt it oozing off of him as well. 

“My brother,” Sirius answers Remus’s unspoken question. “He wanted to move here, but died before he got the chance.”

“I’m sorry,” Remus says solemnly and wishes he could flip his hand so that he could cradle Sirius’s instead, but then he feels Sirius give his hand a gentle squeeze, as if he knows what Remus is thinking. And maybe he does?

“That’s why I’m here,” Sirius continues. “I brought some of his ashes with me so he could live in Paris in some sense forever.”

“Where will you put them?” Remus asks, and he does want to know the answer, but he’d also like to know why it is that Sirius is only leaving some of his brother's ashes here instead of all of them. But that’s a question for another day or another time or never. Something that’s implied in the tragedy of someone dying too young is that it often leads to hard and sad truths instead of comforting answers. 

“I haven’t decided yet,” Sirius says with a shrug.

“Was there a specific place he loved here?” Remus asks trying to be helpful, though he doubts how helpful that question actually is.

“He loved all of it. Said it was the only place he ever felt truly happy.”

“I can see what he meant. It is lovely here. Maybe we should give him a good view?”

“Like what? At the top of the Eiffel Tower? He would’ve hated that,” Sirius laughs and it sends a pleasant jolt through Remus’s body.

“No, now granted I didn’t know him,” Remus says with a matching laugh, relieved to see that they are both able to laugh again during such a somber moment. “I was thinking more along the lines of placing him somewhere he’d like to live. Like where you stayed when you visited your uncle. That obviously left an impression on him.”

“Remus,” Sirius says and lets go of Remus’s hand and pats it twice for emphasis. “I Like the way you think.”


	18. Chapter 18

**SIRIUS**

Leaving Regulus’s ashes in the courtyard of their Uncle Alphard’s old building is an idea that Sirius has already had. The problem he’s having with this idea is that he doesn’t necessarily remember where that building is. He knows it’s somewhere near where he is staying, that’s why he’d chosen the 6th Arrondissement to begin with, it’s just a matter of pinning down which building is the right one. 

It’s a task that anyone who's never been to Paris would expect to be easy enough but when the vast majority of the buildings all look the same, or relatively close to the same, it’s a search that gets very complicated very quickly. Add to that the issue that the roads mostly web and wind around creating a nonexistent pattern that doesn’t even loosely resemble a grid. 

“We’re going to have a hard time finding the place,” Sirius says as he takes a final bite of his meal. 

“You don’t have an address?” Remus asks and looks at him skeptically. 

Sirius frowns, realizing that he’s going to have to give Remus more details than he’s prepared to. “I haven’t been here since I was a kid,” he says and tries to give Remus a nonchalant shrug. He’s pretty sure it’s not convincing based on the way Remus is looking at him, clearly hoping for a bigger explanation. “And we were always driven everywhere or escorted by Alphard or his butler directly. I never needed to know it.”

“Driven? Butler?” Remus says and a sly grin spreads across his lips. “My suspicions that you’re way out of league have just been confirmed.”

“Out of your league?” Sirius questions in an honest attempt to deflect. “You’re the one that’s out of my league.”

“How so?” Remus laughs. “Unless personal drivers, butlers and summers in Paris are suddenly far less glamorous than youth hostels, I think you might be mistaken.”

“None of that stuff is as glamorous as it seems. And it all comes with a price,” Sirius says sadly. 

Sirius watches as Remus’s features transition into a more sullen look of remorse before he says, “I’m sure they do. And I didn’t mean to tease.”

“Oh no, please tease, I deserve it,” Sirius says a bit more resolutely, like he’s trying to bolster himself. 

“So when do you want to start this hunt then?” Remus asks and Sirius is glad for the change of subject. 

“Well, the sun is going down. I say we start tomorrow.” Sirius drinks what’s left of his wine in one big gulp, then gestures to the server to bring their check. 

“Oh no you don’t,” Remus says and tries to intercept the check as it’s being handed to Sirius. 

“Don’t even think about it, Remus,” Sirius says as he passes his card to the server with a polite uttering of ‘Merci’. He turns to look directly at Remus again and raises a conspiratorial eyebrow. “Drivers, butlers, and summers in Paris, remember? Let me pick up the check.”

Remus quickly acquiesces, nodding his head while his cheek flush a delightful pink that Sirius thinks is the most beautiful shade of pink in the world. He couldn’t have asked for a more lovely partner to try and solve this puzzle with. 


	19. Chapter 19

**REMUS**

As Sirius hands their server his card, Remus has a revelation that meeting Sirius was the best case scenario for this trip. Sure he and Lily had joked about him finding a french husband while here, but he can’t help thinking that if he’d met a french man that would’ve only led to a vacation fling, nothing more than an exotic one night stand. Him meeting Sirius has the potential of leading to something so much more, and ideally that is what Remus would like.

“So, would you like to continue this adventure with me?” Sirius asks Remus as he rises from his seat.

“Sure,” Remus says. He briefly looks at his watch and notices the time. The hour is indeed getting late. He decides to test his luck. “Though I’m not sure how much success we’re going to have in one day. We might have to plan for the whole week.”

“Oh, for sure,” Sirius says a bit cockily, almost as if he’s thinking along the same lines as Remus. And to Remus’s delight he grabs onto Remus’s hand and begins to lead him down the road away from the cafe. 

“We’ll need to make sure we give the city a thorough once over, leave no address unchecked.” 

“None at all,” Sirius agrees. 

“And everything around here looks so similar. We’ll really have to double check,” Remus says with his most serious face.

“Everything does look the same, doesn’t it?” Sirius laughs.

“It really does. Not in a bad way, I love the architecture here,” Remus says and laughs as well. “But it does make it hard to decipher where you are.”

“That and all the winding and narrow streets. It’s much more complicated than the grid pattern that we are used to,” Sirius points out.

“Much more complicated. But I will say, the buildings here are far more charming. I almost died when I saw the room I’m in at the hostel had one of these Parisian balconies,” Remus says and points up towards one of the many balconies in the building they’re walking past. 

“A lot different than New York, right?” 

“So different. It’s really quite charming,” Remus says and thinks of all the places he’s lived back home. Having grown up in New York and never having the funds, even as a child living with his parents, there were never balconies and all he’d ever seen out of any of his windows was either a brick wall or directly into someone else’s window. It’s debatable which view is worse, barren brick walls or a windows glimpse into the lives of some of New York’s seediest residents. Years of those kinds of views has made the balconies of Paris seem that much more romantic and desirable. 

“It was one of Regulus’s favorite things about summers in Paris. He’d insist on us leaving the french doors open in our bedroom at night, just to let the air in and the sounds of Paris lull us to sleep,” Sirius says with a soft sigh that tugs at Remus’s insides. 

“Sounds lovely,” Remus says and gives Sirius’s hand a gentle squeeze while also wondering if his mother had done the same thing when she had come here. He hopes so. And if he can, he plans on doing that very thing tonight when he goes to bed at the hostel, assuming his German roommates don’t have an objection. Hopefully they’ll be too drunk again to notice.


	20. Chapter 20

**SIRIUS**

Walking through the streets of Paris hand-in-hand with Remus is like an unexpected dream to Sirius. The last thing he’d expected on this trip was to meet someone, especially not someone who he genuinely likes. He smiles a bit to himself as he thinks about what James will say when he comes home hopefully with a boyfriend. Because Sirius would very much like to have Remus as his boyfriend, and he thinks that Remus might feel the same way. 

“Well, this is me,” Remus says in a voice that sounds a bit disappointed to Sirius. It confirms Sirius’s thoughts that Remus is just as invested in any potential growth to their budding relationship that Sirius is. 

“Until tomorrow,” Sirius says, but doesn't make any attempt to move.

“Until tomorrow,” Remus repeats back and drops his gaze from Sirius’s, but also makes no attempt to leave. 

Their fingers are still loosely intertwined and Sirius grips Remus’s hand a little tighter then tugs, drawing him closer and pulling them off of the sidewalk and into an alcove off to the side of the entrance where Remus is staying. He takes his other hand and softly runs his knuckles across Remus’s cheek, relishing in the feel of his smooth, soft skin. Remus looks up at him, his golden hazel eyes hopeful in what Sirius reads as anticipation. 

Sirius decides that neither of them can wait any longer, he’s wanted to know what Remus’s lips feel like against his own since before he even knew his name, since before they met on the plane, since before Paris. And the way that Remus is looking at him right now tells Sirius that he wants to know the same thing. 

Uncurling his fingers, he tilts Remus’s face more towards his, then dips down and kisses him lightly to start, his lips just a ghost against Remus’s. He’s pleased that upon first contact, Remus rises onto the balls of his feet to meet Sirius the rest of the way and presses their lips more firmly together. Sirius moans slightly when he feels Remus suck his lower lip gently in between his and Sirius responds by bringing both of his hands to Remus’s cheeks to hold him there, trying to preserve this moment for as long as he can.

When Remus opens his mouth enough to release Sirius’s lower lip from the space between his own plump pout, Sirius slides his tongue inside and gets the first proper taste of Remus that he’s been craving since the airport. The way their tongues and lips work in tandem, allowing for an easy and sensual exploration of each other, Sirius can’t help but wonder about the ease at which they might be able to engage in further exploration. What Remus will feel like underneath him. What Remus’s most intimate places will taste like. What he will feel like inside of Remus. These musings come in quick succession for Sirius. 

But as much as he’d like to know the answer to all of these, he also knows that he only has one shot at finding out. Remus is someone Sirius wants to give all of his attention to. He wants Remus to know that he is special, that he means something to Sirius despite the minimal time that they have known each other. Sirius vows to himself to not screw this up.

When they finally pull apart, it is done with a contented sigh from both of them. Sirius rests his forehead against Remus’s and speaks quietly, “Meet you in front of the Grand Palace tomorrow?” 

“Okay,” Remus says breathlessly.

“Bonne nuit, Remus Lupin,” Sirius says then kisses Remus gently on the lips again.

“Bonne nuit, Sirius black.”


	21. Chapter 21

**REMUS**

Even being the romantic that he is, Remus has always questioned the validity of expressions involving feeling as if one is on cloud nine. However, as he walks into his shared room at the hostel, all he can think about is that floating on cloud nine is exactly how he feels. And if he wants to maintain this feeling, which he absolutely does, he’s going to have to find a way to continue to keep kissing Sirius Black.

In the few kisses that he’s ever had, none have come close to comparing to the one that he just shared with Sirius. There was a natural ease that washed over the two of them as their lips melded together, as their tongues glided against one another, as their hands smoothed over each other's bodies. Remus is practically drunk on it and he wants more.

He grins continuously as he readies himself for bed. Opening the french doors and letting the night air in, grinning. Brushing his teeth, grinning. Showering, grinning— and also wanking. Sliding into bed, still grinning. He tosses and turns a bit, but quickly realizes that he is far too giddy about Sirius Black to get any sleep. Remus grabs onto his phone and decides to give Lily a text, after all, it is still quite early in New York and she is likely still working her shift at the coffee shop. 

It must be a slow night as it takes Lily less than thirty seconds to get back to him. She’s beyond eager to hear about his trip and to see the handful of photos that he has snapped so far. Most importantly though, she’s genuinely excited to hear about the budding romance that Remus is unexpectedly cultivating and wants to hear more over the coming days. She tells him that hearing from him is a nice distraction and is working as an easy way for her to brush off the advances of the messy haired latte man who’s come in yet again to drink from an extra large mug with a dopey smile on his face. 

He sends her the only picture he was able to capture of Sirius all day, it’s somewhat blurry and it only shows his perfectly sculpted face at an angle, but it's still enough to prompt Lily to gush unabashedly at Remus’s luck, even if she is mildly disappointed that Remus’s new found Parisian love story is in fact not Parisian at all. It’s also enough that she’s able to recognize him as one of the hot twenty-five under twenty-five. 

This news is surprising to Remus and it washes the grin off of his face. Lily tries to reassure him, giving him words of encouragement that it doesn’t mean that what they have is reserved for Paris and Paris alone. That it is possible for their romance to continue back home as well. But now Remus has his doubts. No wonder they had never run into each other before. They came from two entirely different worlds. 

He says goodnight to Lily, plugs in his phone and rolls over onto his side to let Paris’s night air wash over his face. He closes his eyes and tries to think more about his kiss with Sirius and less about their drastically different lives and how they do not match up at all outside of a rendezvous in Paris. As he slowly drifts to sleep he feels a breeze warmer than the rest blow over him and with it comes the voice of his mother, whispering to him to not be discouraged, as star crossed lovers are a thing for a reason.


	22. Chapter 22

**SIRIUS**

Sirius feels great as he wakes from the best night's sleep he’s had in ages. It could be thanks to the jet lag or walking around all day, but Sirius suspects that his solid and uninterrupted night of sleep was thanks to kissing Remus Lupin. He wonders if Remus would have the same effect if he was sleeping next to him. It’s likely that he would. Sirius would probably sleep even deeper and more content with Remus held closely to him, preferably after a thorough roll around in the sheets that leaves them both equally sexually sated. 

He picks up his phone and checks the time. He needs to hurry up and get ready if he doesn’t want to keep Remus waiting, which he definitely doesn’t. If anything, he’d rather beat Remus to their meeting place in an attempt to reassure Remus that Sirius does indeed want to be there and more importantly, that he wants to be there with Remus. 

His instincts on this prove to be correct when he sees Remus walking towards him and up the few steps leading to the Grand Palace. He looks just as happy to see Sirius as Sirius is to see him, but there’s a hint of mild and careful hesitation as he approaches. Sirius, who is no stranger to being the object of someone else’s affection, is admittedly a stranger to being someone who wants to dole his own affections out onto someone else. In fact, Remus is the first person that Sirius has felt the desire to be near constantly in ages. He feels this pull towards Remus so intensely that his feet carry him and close the gap between the two before Sirius even has a chance to consciously direct them to do so.

The smile that he’s rewarded with from Remus as he steps within touching distance of him is enough to make Sirius’s breath hitch and the only way for him to catch it again is to kiss Remus before he even says hello.

“Well, hello to you too,” Remus says with his lips gently catching onto Sirius’s as they break slightly apart. Just slight enough for Sirius to catch his breath yet again. “That was quite the greeting.”

“I’m just happy to see you,” Sirius says, then dips down and kisses Remus once more. It’s almost as if getting the chance to kiss Remus again today has opened up a well inside of Sirius that can only be filled by more contact with Remus. 

“I bet you say that to everyone you meet,” Remus says in a tone that could be mistaken for joking, but it causes Sirius’s heart to drop. After all, most jokes are rooted in the truth and if Remus suspects that Sirius is a player, well then Sirius knows he needs to set the record straight immediately. 

“Just you,” Sirius tries to reassure, then dips down and kisses Remus for a third time. 

“Really?” Remus questions in a breathless way that lets Sirius know that he’s doing something right, even if it is just kissing. Though his next words are enough to knock the wind out of Sirius for the second time today, this time not in a good way. “Mr. Hot Under Twenty-five only says such pretty things to me?”

“You saw the article,” Sirius says knowingly. He pulls away enough for him to slide both of his hands up Remus’s body and up to his cheeks so that he can cradle Remus’s lovely face between his palms. He tilts Remus’s gaze towards his and speaks directly to him with their eyes locked upon each other. He wants Remus to truly hear him, to feel what it is that Sirius feels despite the two of them having only just met. “I’ve only known you for three days, but I can tell you this much, you mean more to me than being on that damn list ever will.”


	23. Chapter 23

**REMUS**

Pretty words from a pretty man, and Remus is more than happy to soak them in. To most, especially anyone who’s ever had any experience with a broken heart, hearing a man as attractive as Sirius speak such eloquent words about how much someone means to them should be enough to raise some red flags and wave them wildly in the wind. But here in Paris, the wind doesn’t blow nearly as hard, and the gentle breeze that blows Sirius’s words towards Remus’s ears, just makes them sound that much more genuine. 

Paris is for lovers after all, and one can't fall in love if they walk through life unwilling to be vulnerable and open to such fine words. And as if to accentuate his point, the impossibly intense grey eyed gaze that Sirius has bestowed upon him so intently is so incredibly sincere, Remus feels it in his bones. 

Feeling seen, understood, and frankly a bit light headed from the intensity to which Sirius seems to function when things matter to him, Remus nods his head in agreement to Sirius’s sentiment, then rises on the balls of his feet to bring his lips to Sirius’s, and lets a kiss inform Sirius that Remus feels the same way. 

In just three days' time, Sirius has woven his way deep within Remus, planting himself into the occasional empty crevice of Remus’s being that have ached for so long to be filled by another. “Promise me, Remus,” his mother had said. “When you meet that special man, the one that lights up your world and illuminates you from the inside out, don’t be afraid of his light.” 

At the time he’d just nodded his head and patted her gently on the hand. She’d been talking nonsense for days. But now, with Sirius’s lips pressed between his and his cheeks and heart glowing brighter than they ever have, Remus wonders if maybe the talk of light and a special man had been meant to be prophetic. Nothing shines brighter in the night sky than the star Sirius is named for, and here he is illuminating Remus in a way he thought he’d never experience. And Hope, his mother so aptly named, was always one to see fate and destiny in even the most mundane. Though Remus has to admit that nothing about Sirius even loosely resembles mundane. Sirius is a star, a beacon, and right now the light and heat he gives off is aimed solely at Remus. 

“Do you believe in the stars?” Sirius asks when their lips break apart. 

“I didn’t,” Remus says breathlessly. “Until I met one.”

“Good line, Remus,” Sirius lightly laughs against Remus’s lips. “But you have to admit, there’s something a bit magical, divine about the way that we met.”

“As if fate had something to do with it,” Remus says, then punctuates it with another soft kiss. 

“Fate, or maybe Hope and Regulus.”


	24. Chapter 24

**SIRIUS**

Once the words had slipped past Sirius’s tongue he was borderline horrified by himself. Who was he to suddenly start talking about the divine intervention of the stars? Up until a few days ago he didn’t even think that love was a possibility, let alone fate— if in fact whatever it is he has going on with Remus can qualify as either or both of those things. If James was here, he’d be having quite the laugh.

“So, where are we starting today?” Remus asks, effectively breaking Sirius of his thoughts regarding the complete romantic one-eighty he has taken.

“I thought we’d take a quick stroll through here and then cross the Seine and meander through the streets for a bit over there. Maybe even take you to see the Eiffel Tower,” Sirius suggests.

“I can see it,” Remus laughs and points across the river to where the Eiffel Tower was indeed peeking out over the signature low rooftops of Paris. 

“I meant up close,” Sirius laughs with him and places an arm around Remus’s shoulders. He lets himself instantly take pleasure in the way Remus’s smaller and slighter frame feels within his arm and pressed against his side. He wonders what the best way will be to keep him here forever. 

“I know,” Remus sighs and Sirius can feel him press his body a touch closer to his own. “And of course I want to go see it. It would be silly to come all this way and not.”

_ What would be silly _ , Sirius thinks,  _ is to have met this beautiful man on a plane and not taken every opportunity possible thereafter to enjoy his company _ . “What else is on your list?”   
  
“I’m not really sure,” Remus says and looks up at Sirius from his side. “You’re the expert. What is it that you think I should see?”  


Sirius is hard pressed to think of any location outside of his hotel room that he’d like to show Remus more, but he can’t very well say that. Not yet at least, maybe in another day or two if his minimal tour guide skills continue to work. “There really is no better way to experience Paris than to just wander the streets and live the life. So we can start there. Besides, we sort of have to do that anyway.”

“Did you do any research on where your uncle's place was located last night?”

“No,” Sirius says honestly, then turns his head to look at Remus more directly with a little smirk on his face before he adds, “And if I had, then this little adventure of ours would be far shorter and less exciting.”

“I definitely don’t want that to happen,” Remus says and he gives Sirius the most mischievous smile he’s seen in ages. Maybe he needs to rethink his plan on waiting a few more days to get Remus out of the hostel and into his hotel room.

“Should we grab breakfast before we begin then?” Sirius suggests, one eyebrow raised. “I mean, if neither of us is in a hurry for this adventure to be over.”

“We shouldn’t embark on our search on empty stomachs,” Remus agrees.

“Definitely not. Besides, these croissants are not going to eat themselves,” Sirius says and begins to lead Remus towards the patisserie across the way. 

“I was thinking more along the lines of crêpes this morning,” Remus suggests hopefully. 

“Crêpes it is,” Sirius agrees, then places a gentle kiss into Remus’s loose curls. After all, who is Sirius to deny Remus anything that he could ever ask or hope for. Besides, crêpes had been a childhood favorite of Regulus’s as well.

Sirius releases a contented sigh, and lets himself soak up the simple pleasure of walking with a handsome man under his arm, while sweet memories of his brother’s eager childhood face running ahead of him in the mornings plays through his mind. All plans he had to walk through the grandeur of the Grand Palace are forgotten and replaced by something far more rare and awe inspiring to look at. For if given the choice every single day from this moment on, Sirius would much rather wake to see Remus smiling back at him than any other wonder of the world.


	25. Chapter 25

**REMUS**

With his belly full of crêpes and coffee, and his heart full from basking in the undivided attention of Sirius Black, Remus rises from his seat at the cafe and reaches his hand to clasp Sirius's already outstretched palm. His cheeks flush brightly when he feels Sirius skin against his and he can’t help but wonder what kind of effect the entirety of having Sirius’s whole body naked and against his would have. Overwhelming in all of the most wonderful ways is his best guess. 

“Shall we,” Sirius says to him, his eyes hopeful, his grin mischievous. 

“We shall,” Remus answers and nods while he rolls his lips between his teeth, catching a last little hint of the sugared berries that had topped his breakfast. It’s almost as good as the lingering look that Sirius gives him before he tugs him gently by the hand and leads him out of the cafe. 

“I was thinking about it last night,” Sirius begins and Remus feels him move closer to Remus’s side as they begin to walk down the narrow sidewalk. “I was always able to see the spire of Notre Dame from mine and Regulus’s bedroom window.”

“So why are we going to the Eiffel Tower today?” Remus asks mildly confused, but also glad for the potential excuse to spend another day wandering the streets of Paris with Sirius.

Sirius guiltily smiles at him before he answers. “Well, would it be such a shame to have to meet me again tomorrow?” 

“Is that your plan, Sirius Black, to meet me every morning at a different Paris landmark just to suggest a different one for the following day.”   
  
“Would that be so terrible?” Sirius asks and stops them mid stride, bringing his other hand to Remus’s cheek to guide his lips up to his for a gentle and sweet kiss. He nips lightly at Remus’s lower lip as he pulls away and Remus finds himself chasing after Sirius’s lips again.  


He catches them with his own then whispers as he pulls away. “I’d follow you around Paris with no destination anyways.”

“Would you now?” Sirius asks and pulls him in a little closer, his arm sliding smoothly around Remus’s waist to support him. 

“I would. But I think you know that already.” 

Sirius dips down and kisses him again. “It doesn’t change the fact that it’s nice to hear.”

Remus pulls away and rolls his eyes at Sirius, despite the fact that he is indeed the one that had started this round of sweet talk between the two of them. “I bet you say that to every boy you meet on a plane.”

“No,” Sirius says in a tone that doesn’t allow Remus to question his honesty or sincerity. “Just you.”

“I highly doubt that, Mr. Hot Twenty-five,” Remus teases.

“Oh, that damn list!” Sirius exclaims.

Remus laughs heartily at him, though he’d readily admit that finding out that Sirius had been included on that list was reason enough for him to doubt the growing connection the two of them were sharing. And maybe if they were in New York he’d never have been able to look past it, but here in Paris, with the realities of their day to day lives an ocean away from them, Remus is willing to take a chance and get over his insecurities. That doesn’t mean however, that he can’t expel a little energy in teasing Sirius about it, especially now that he knows that he wishes he was never a part of it. 

“I’m only teasing,” Remus says and wraps an arm around Sirius’s waist. Sirius quickly places an arm around Remus shoulders and Remus leans himself more firmly against Sirius as they continue to walk again. “You’ve already assured me that I don’t need to be concerned.”

“I know,” Sirius sighs. “It’s just that I rather like you and I’d hate for you to think that this is just something only reserved for Paris.”

“Is this your way of asking me on a date when we get back to New York?”

“This is me asking you for more than just a date. I’m hoping you’ll be my boyfriend once we arrive stateside.”

“Why wait until then?” Remus asks hopefully as he turns his head to gaze up at Sirius from over his shoulder.

“I guess there really is no need,” Sirius says and places a soft and lingering kiss onto Remus's lips as they walk.


	26. Chapter 26

**SIRIUS**

For someone who claimed he didn’t believe that love was for him just a few days ago, Sirius finds that he can’t seem to hold himself back from gushing about Remus at the first chance he gets to James. When Remus had suggested that there was no need for them to wait to dub the boyfriend moniker, Sirius couldn’t help but internally laugh at the irony of the situation. It’s almost as if having spoken that he wasn’t interested in love, despite the fact that he actually is, had been fate's way of delivering him to this reality. 

James of course laughs uproariously at the news. Well at least Sirius assumes that he laughs, if the plethora of emoji’s, gifs, and meme’s is any accurate indication of how amusing James finds the situation. And James is predictably interested in the little tidbit of information that Sirius has given him about Remus being a barista, just like a certain redhead that James happens to be enamored with. 

“What’s so funny?” Remus asks as he returns from the restroom to join Sirius again where he’s standing by the railing overlooking Paris to the east from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Remus’s sudden presence and subsequent question startles Sirius as he slides his phone back into his pocket. 

“Just my friend being ridiculous over text,” Sirius says, then tugs Remus closer to him, bringing him to stand against the rail and take in the sights. Sirius steps behind him and rests his hands on either side of the rail, effectively caging Remus in to enjoy the view from nine-hundred feet above ground level. 

Remus leans his back against Sirius’s torso. “It’s quite lovely up here. Peaceful.”

“It is,” Sirius says as he hooks his chin over Remus's shoulder. 

“Paris really does sprawl, you know? In a way that New York doesn’t.”

“I know. I love New York, but everything can feel so cramped together sometimes with so many tall buildings crowded together.”

“Exactly. Which is beautiful in its own way,” Remus sighs and brings a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun for a better look. “But there really isn’t an uninterrupted view like this back home. Nothing that shows quite the expanse I guess, if that makes sense.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to accuse you of home town bashing, Remus,” Sirius jokes. “It’s just a different way of laying things out.” 

“True,” Remus laughs. “And I have to admit, I do miss the grid pattern. I mean, all these winding roads with quaint names like Rue de Rivoli, Avenue de l’Opéra, Boulevard de Clichy, and Champs-Élysées, are charming, but confusing as hell.”

“It is easy to get lost in Paris, that’s for sure,” Sirius agrees and can’t help himself from dropping a soft kiss onto the corner of Remus’s jaw.

“Not when you have a proper tour guide though,” Remus says, his jaw brushing against Sirius’s lips.

“It’s lucky you found me then, to help show you around,” Sirius says and places another kiss onto the sharp point of Remus’s jaw. He feels Remus lean a little heavier against him and watches a smile turn up the corners of his lips at his eye line.

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about you,” Remus says, his lips curling into more of a wicked grin. “I meant the other handsome man I met on the plane.”

Sirius quickly spins Remus around to face him, causing Remus to laugh harder at his own joke and presses his backside up against the rail, then kisses him soundly, effectively capturing Remus’s laugh between his lips. 

“I’m just teasing,” Remus says when they break apart. “You’re the most perfect tour guide and boyfriend I could have ever found on a plane to Paris.”


	27. Chapter 27

**REMUS**

Remus is struck by how surreal of an experience it is to be the boyfriend of Sirius Black, and he can’t wait to tell Lily. He pulls out his phone and snaps a selfie of the two of them standing atop the Eiffel Tower with Paris in all of its glory cascading behind and below them. 

“For posterity,” he says as he slides the phone back into his pocket, seconds after discreetly sending that photo to Lily via text. 

“Of course,” Sirius says, then pulls out his phone to do the same thing. 

“Are you about to make me Instagram famous?” Remus jokes before Sirius can snap the picture.

“Well, I was just going to send a picture to my friend James, but I could post it if you’d like,” he says, then kisses Remus on the cheek right as he hits the button to take the photo, effectively capturing the broadest and brightest smile that Remus has let flit across his face in almost a year. 

“Doesn’t matter, I’m not on social media anyways. I don’t have an image to maintain.” Remus says with a little wink. 

“You’re lucky. Maintaining an image is it’s own full time job and I hate it.”

“I’m sure some good things come of it,” Remus says and pulls his phone back out of his pocket at the feel of it vibrating, no doubt delivering Lily’s reply.

“Maybe,” Sirius says. Remus watches his eyes light up as he looks at his own phone screen. “Holy shit.”

“What?” Remus asks before he gets a chance to see what Lily has texted back.

“James, he knows you,” Sirius laughs. “You work at the coffee shop he’s always hanging out in and pining over a certain redhead that has caught his eye.”

“Wait!” Remus exclaims. “Are you telling me that your friend James is the messy haired latte man?”

“That would be him,” Sirius continues to laugh. “So does your friend Lily have red hair?”

“She does!” Remus smacks his hand against Sirius’s upper arm. “She just texted me, hold on.” Remus looks at his phone and reads Lily’s ecstatic reply, proclaiming how handsome Sirius is and how adorable they look together. A second text comes through at the same time Sirius’s phone chimes. “Oh my god!” Remus exclaims again. “Messy haired latte man just walked into the cafe.”

“I know! He just texted me,” Sirius says, laughing wildly. “Should we help him out?”

“We could,” Remus shrugs. “Or we can watch him flail for a bit.”

“You’re wicked, Remus Lupin.” Sirius leans in and kisses him quickly, then pulls back and starts tapping on his phone. “Does she have any interest in him?”

“She says no, but she definitely lets her eyes linger on him when she thinks I’m not looking.”

“I’ll just tell him to stop messing with his hair and to ask her out already.”

“She’s always wondered why he hasn’t,” Remus shrugs again, then starts tapping on his screen to tell her what it is they just worked out. He looks up at Sirius. “How funny that we’re across the ocean and texting two people who are also standing next to each other.”

“It’s as if we were always meant to find one another,” Sirius says as he slides his phone back into his pocket. He grabs a hold of Remus’s cheeks and tilts his head, causing Remus to shiver a bit at the touch before he leans down and kisses Remus soundly. 


	28. Chapter 28

**SIRIUS**

The fact that Remus works with the certain redhead that James has been pining over for months is the final detail that Sirius needs to confirm to him that he and Remus’s meeting on the plane was more than just an accident. Now, he’s officially convinced that Regulus and Remus’s mother, Hope, are somewhere together tugging at the strings of fate. 

The thought of the two of them working together does two things for Sirius. One, it brings him comfort, even if it's far fetched, that maybe Regulus has found himself a partner in mischief or maybe even a proper mother to care for him in the after life when the one he had in his real life was such a failure. The second thing this line of thinking does for Sirius, is confirm for him that it’s utterly ridiculous for the two of them to be staying separately from here on out. It’s time for him to man up and do the thing he’s been wanting to do since they landed in Paris. 

“So, I was thinking,” Sirius begins as they walk across the extensive lawns and corresponding park that the Eiffel Tower rests upon. “Maybe, you should come stay at the hotel with me.”

“It would make this search more efficient,” Remus agrees with a nod of his head. “But I’d hate to impose. And I insist on paying you back for it.”

“It’s not an imposition. You’d be doing me a favor. It’s like you said, this search will be more efficient.”

“So it’s efficiency you’re looking for?” Remus teases. “What if I like to drag things out? Take my time?”

Sirius lets go of Remus’s hand and pulls him into his arms, holding him tight and close. “You tease, in more ways than one!” Sirius exclaims. “Believe me, Remus Lupin, the only thing I want to be efficient in is finding my uncle's old place. I intend to drag things out with you forever.”

“Forever, huh?” Remus says a little too coyly to not be sincere.

Sirius can’t help but kiss him. He didn’t mean for that statement to have a double meaning. But he can’t deny that the unintended meaning does fall in line with his wishes for what has blossomed between him and Remus. “I think forever sounds like not enough time.”

He watches Remus’s face blush with his words and it tugs at him deeply and thoroughly through the heart. Why would he have ever thought that his life was complete before he met Remus? The way that Remus affects every particle that makes up Sirius is electrifying, life giving. As they return to walking hand and hand together to go grab Remus’s things from the hostel, all Sirius can think about is how much he hopes that he has the same effect on Remus.

Sirius looks over at Remus and is warmed by the shy smile that he is wearing. It calms Sirius to his core.  _ This,  _ he thinks,  _ is what everyone means when they tell you that when it feels right, you know.  _ Remus is his person and he’s not about to let him go.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains the beginning of Vague C+ Smut™️.

**REMUS**

Remus tries not to be too intimidated by the vast difference between the room he was sharing at the hostel and the suite that he is now sharing with Sirius. It’s unlike anything he’s ever stayed in before and he tries not to dwell too much on the fact that the apartment his father and him live in back in New York would easily fit into this space with room to spare. It’s mildly absurd that Sirius would be staying here by himself and Remus is more than happy to keep Sirius company from here on out.

“It’s a little excessive. I know,” Sirius says as he relieves Remus of his backpack and places it down onto one of the many plush chairs tucked into corners or around tables within the suite.

“I might have to take back my promise to repay you,” Remus tries to joke, but the truth in it is a little too accurate for it to be entirely funny.

“I’ve told you, you don’t need to do that,” Sirius assures and wraps his arms around Remus from behind, tucking his chin over Remus’s shoulder. 

It’s a position that Remus keeps finding himself in with Sirius and he can’t deny that he enjoys it. The weight of Sirius’s chin dipped down and tucked onto Remus’s shoulder is a very comforting way for things to be. He likes the way Sirius’s voice sounds right against his ear. He likes how the stubble on his chin catches and tickles a bit at his skin. He likes the intimacy of sharing the very same air. And most of all, he likes how from here, within Sirius’s hold, he can let his back rest against Sirius’s chest and feel the strong support that he so effortlessly provides.

“Well, I’m sure we can work out some sort of an arrangement,” Remus sighs and leans a little heavier into Sirius. He’s quickly met with an even tighter embrace and if he’s not mistaken, the feel of Sirius’s hardening cock against his backside. He could tease and point it out, but that would be more than mildly hypocritical considering that his is also beginning to rise up and demand attention.

“An arrangement, huh?” Sirius says huskily into Remus’s ear before he gently nibbles at it, then moves lower to place soft kisses onto Remus’s neck.

Remus is more than happy to comply and drops his other ear to his other shoulder in an effort to give Sirius more of his skin to lavish in his tantalizing attention. “That’s not exactly what I was thinking, this isn’t Amsterdam after all.”

Sirius’s hands start to pull on the hem of Remus’s shirt. “No, it’s not. But we could do this there too if you wanted. Go on a tour of Europe, make love in every country.” 

The combination of Sirius’s words, his hands, his lips working languidly across his neck and jaw, all of it together makes Remus feel as if he is melting into Sirius. The flutter he feels in his heart is insisting that he continues to let go. To let Sirius devour him whole. Who cares if they’ve only known each other for a few days, they’ve hardly left each other's waking sides in that short time. They’ve talked and shared and been thrust into a state of euphoria and rapidly intensifying feelings for each other through their mutual vulnerability colliding at the exact same moment in time.

It was love, connection, adventure, spontaneity that he had wanted when he set himself back a month's pay to do this. He flushes from the buildup of everything he’s already experienced with Sirius in a few short days as Sirius pulls Remus’s shirt over his head, spins him around, and locks Remus in an urgent and passionate kiss.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Vague C+ Smut™️.

**SIRIUS**

Sirius is no stranger to sex, but the intensity of the feelings he’s developed for Remus is definitely new territory. His whole body is thrumming from the anticipation of getting to be with Remus so intimately. It’s a level of arousal that he has never experienced and he’s eager to know what making love to Remus will feel like.

It’s a concept he always thought was ridiculous. Sex has always just been sex, there was never anything else tied to it. But as he lays Remus down on the bed and makes quick work of sliding Remus’s pants off of Remus’s slender legs, he keeps his eyes open and fixed on Remus to burn this sight into his memory. The sight of Remus laid out near bare before him for the very first time. A sight that he wants to remember even after he gets to see it for the hundredth, thousandth, or even millionth time. 

He tosses his own shirt to the side then removes his pants and takes his briefs down right after, letting his hard and almost aching cock free. All of him needs to see, taste, feel, hear and smell everybit of Remus at this moment. He lets his body employ and utilize all of his senses to satiate that need as he crawls back over Remus. His eyes roam, his lips and tongue dive into Remus skin, his hands run across his flesh and knead into his muscular planes, his ears pick up on Remus’s soft moans and near silent whimpers, and his nose breathes in the heady scent of Remus’s arousal as he settles his face between Remus’s legs before he removes the final barrier between the two of them and dives in for a complete feast of his senses. 

Remus is intoxicating. Better than any drug or bottle of fine whiskey that Sirius has ever enjoyed. He’s pliant and beautiful and skilled with his own body, and makes Sirius feel as if he’s going to crest and burst before they even truly get started. 

Sirius needs to steady himself and works his way back up Remus’s torso, letting his hands grab a hold a little firmer. His tongue licks lazy stripes from hip to collarbone and up to Remus’s jaw before finally settling their lips together. He sighs intently when he feels Remus wrap his legs around his waist, feeling them in the way that he had first imagined in the airport when the sun was streaming through the window alighting Remus as if he was the answer that Sirius had been looking for. 

Rutting together, letting their bodies take over, Sirius feels a shudder move up his spine, the threat of an impending and much built up to orgasm washing over him. He stills Remus with his hands and pulls his lips just far enough away to let his gaze hover over Remus’s. 

“Not yet,” he whispers and uses one of his hands to brush Remus’s dampening curls away from his brow. “I want to feel all of you.”

He watches as Remus’s eyes go soft and wide with a gentle nod of his head, silently consenting to the question that Sirius hasn’t spoken but desperately wants the answer to. They both want this, feel this, and know it in their hearts. What has blossomed between them is special and dear and Sirius is not about to fuck this up like he’s done with most everything else, by rushing through and skipping the details, by only looking to fill his own needs. 

Once Remus is ready and Sirius can’t hold back any longer, he takes a deep mind clearing breath and lets his body, mind, heart and soul fully join with Remus. The two of them working in tandem, eliciting all forms of pleasure from one another and finally moaning the others' names as they come.


	31. Chapter 31

**REMUS**

Remus wants to pinch himself as he wakes up still wrapped in Sirius’s arms the following morning. He doesn’t, he knows better than to do such a thing as he doesn’t want to ruin the peaceful existence he finds himself in, nor does he want to abruptly discover that he’s finally given himself over to the fantasy worlds his mother taught him to create and find out that Sirius has just been an elaborate figment of his imagination. That would, after all, be a complete and utter disappointment. Especially when one considers that last night had left him far from disappointed.

Sirius, not that Remus is surprised, proved himself to be a skilled and attentive lover. Not that Remus really had anyone to compare him to. Outside of quick and clumsy fumblings that led to a few semi-successful handjobs and one not entirely disastrous blowjob, Remus is not what anyone would consider experienced by any stretch of the word. He’s not wholly innocent either. He’s experienced enough to understand that what he has with Sirius and the way that the two of them had moved together last night and brought each other to a state of mutual bliss is quite an extraordinary thing. And something that he would like to repeat often and forever if possible. Not that he’s planning on telling Sirius that. He’d already lucked out enough with Sirius guessing that he was no expert in the ways of love making, he’s not about to scare the man who turned out to be nothing but caring, skilled and understanding about Remus’s needs. Besides, Sirius definitely hadn’t seemed disappointed last night either.

And from the way Sirius is tugging Remus’s still naked form closer to him as he spoons him in his sleep confirms to Remus that Sirius is just as happy and content with the way things have developed between them as well. 

Remus takes a deep breath and lets his eyes open to enjoy the view of the Luxembourg Garden that he can see through the french doors that open up beside the hotel suites extra large bed. It’s a gorgeous sight, even if he can only make out a little bit of it. 

“Beautiful,” Sirius murmurs against Remus’s neck, his breath causing Remus to shiver in the most delightful way.

“It really is,” Remus agrees. “Thank you for sharing your view with me.”

“I meant you,” Sirius says and places a soft lingering kiss onto Remus’s shoulder. 

“Oh,” Remus laughs a bit self consciously. 

“Don’t laugh you beautiful, brilliant, and amazing thing.”

“I can’t help it,” Remus laughs again as his whole body blushes at Sirius's sweet words. “No one’s ever called me any of those things before.”

“Well, that changes today,” Sirius says and deftly turns Remus around to face him within the circle of his arms. He brings a hand up to cup Remus’s jaw and lets his thumb rub smoothly across Remus’s cheek bone. 

Remus, emboldened and spurred on by Sirius’s words, closes the gap between them and kisses Sirius sleepily, humming in contentment when he feels Sirius’s hand on his cheek hold him steady, keeping him there to let the moment linger a little longer.


	32. Chapter 32

**SIRIUS**

Sirius would love nothing more than to remain in bed with Remus all day. He’s seen Paris, and though he truly does love the city, he loves the sight of Remus Lupin naked in his bed far more. But he’s not here to lie in bed all day, even if the company he has is the most lovely and amazing individual that he has ever shared a bed with, or a room for that matter, or really any space. Remus Lupin is far better than anyone he’s ever met and at the moment that even includes James, his brother in everything but blood. But brothers, whether born or found, no matter how close, can not warm your bed and your heart when you need it most. And right now, Sirius may as well be vacationing on the sun with how full and warm his heart feels with Remus still lying in his arms sated and enjoying the comedown of a slow and leisurely morning tumble in the sheets. He dips down and places another soft kiss onto Remus’s equally soft lips and enjoys the sound of the contented sigh that Remus lets out as he pulls away.

“We have to get up, don’t we?” Remus asks, his eyes peering up at Sirius from underneath his lashes in a way that makes Sirius want to melt even deeper into the mattress.

“We should,” Sirius says and lets his thoughts briefly flit to his brother. He’d made a promise to Regulus after all, even if it was posthumously, and he intends to keep that promise. He is most certainly not going to let his brother down again, especially not after he’s become more and more convinced that it was his brother who had twisted Sirius’s fate around to bring him and Remus together. 

“Where are we taking the hunt today?” 

“Well, like I said, I think I have a general idea of where we need to look. So I thought we’d head over to Notre Dame today, and backtrack from there.”

“But Notre Dame is closed. You don’t have some connection over there that I don’t know about, do you?” Remus asks, his eyes earnest in a way that Sirius is beginning to love him for. 

“No,” Sirius laughs lightly and kisses Remus’s forehead. “No connections. But we will be able to see it from outside. And from there, I should be able to locate my uncle's old building.”

“Are you ready for that?” Remus asks softly in a tone that can only be produced by someone who truly understands what it entails to let go of a loved one.

“I have to be,” Sirius says and feels a lump begin to form in his throat. If it was anyone other than Remus with him at this moment he’d be fully embarrassed and far less likely to admit the truth. That he isn’t ready, not even a little bit, but he’d made a promise to his brother, and a promise to himself. He has to do this if he ever wants to have any hope of moving on, of being happy instead of sad, of being resolved instead of guilty. Of being capable of living a full life without ever dwelling on the what ifs. He owes that to Regulus’s memory, he owes that to himself, and if he’s being honest, he owes that to Remus, so that Remus can have Sirius as the full man that he has felt himself regrowing into in this past week, instead of the husk of a man he was when they met on the plane. 

He takes a deep breath and breathes Remus in, lets him fill him to the brim. “It’s Regulus’s birthday today after all.”


	33. Chapter 33

**REMUS**

Even covered in scaffolding, Notre Dame Cathedral is a sight to behold and Remus feels the pangs of regret pulling at him. If only he’d come here sooner, been able to see the cathedral in its full glory before tragedy struck in the form of a fire. But isn’t that one of the largest lessons that life has to offer us? To not hold back. To not wait. To grab life and live it in the now. 

For his entire life, Remus listened to his mother wax poetically, and definitely more than a bit dreamily, about Paris. Listened to her constantly tell him how much she wished she could go back. Listened to her tell him to make sure that he brings his love here when he finds them. 

This entire trip he’s been kicking himself for waiting until she was gone to go. How wonderful would it have been to be able to come home and talk to her about his trip. To tell her about all of the beautiful things that he saw. And most of all, to tell her that he’s pretty sure he’s fallen in love in Paris.

Who is he kidding? He knows for sure that he has fallen in love in Paris with Sirius. Because what else could this feeling of all encompassing joy, contentment, pleasure, and excitement be? It has to be love. And that would probably explain why a large part of him is terrified of losing it once he returns to the states.

As if he can read Remus’s thoughts and feelings and needs, Sirius drapes an arm across Remus’s shoulders and pulls him close, his hand squeezing lightly around Remus’s shoulder. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It really is,” Remus sighs and lets his head rest against Sirius's shoulder. “I’m kicking myself for not seeing it before it burned.”

“It was quite the sight,” Sirius says with an equally sad sigh, then places a kiss into Remus’s curls that makes Remus’s whole body shiver with affection. “But I’m glad we’re here now, it’s quite fitting for the both of us.”

“How so?” Remus asks and temporarily takes his eyes off of the cathedral to look at Sirius. 

Sirius’s eyes are still focused on Notre Dame. “Well, it’s just, both of us, we’ve been through some real change this past year, loved ones that we thought we’d have forever, are now gone.” He turns his head to look at Remus more directly. “And here we are, together, rebuilding our lives and sense of self from the ashes.”

A smile pulls at Remus’s cheeks despite the sudden urge he has to cry at Sirius’s words. He’s right of course and this trip has highlighted that fact for the both of them. They’ve found each other at the exact time that they needed the other. At the exact time that they were ready for another. At a moment when both were open and vulnerable enough to let someone else into their usually guarded lives. It’s the exact sort of meeting that Remus’s mother would write into her tales, and that alone causes Remus to smile more brightly. 

“You just reminded me of my mother,” Remus says as he rises on the balls of his feet and turns himself more directly to face Sirius. He drapes his arms over Sirius’s shoulders and kisses Sirius deeply when he feels Sirius’s arms wrap more firmly around his waist, almost lifting him the rest of the way to reach him.

Despite the sadness of their conversation, being here with Sirius right now is the happiest that Remus has ever been. When they pull apart he can’t help himself as the words escape his lips. “I think I might be in love with you.”


	34. Chapter 34

**SIRIUS**

The words _I love you_ are not something that Sirius Black has heard very often throughout his life. His parents weren't known for being affectionate and even Regulus was guarded when it came to that simple phrase. James Potter has probably said it to him the most, but that’s always been under the guise of friendship and found family love. Hearing it come from Remus’s lips is far different, and Sirius finds that he enjoys it very much. That just the sound of the words on Remus’s voice is enough to send a warmth throughout his entire being. 

“I think I love you too,” he says as he envelopes Remus more fully, and as the words roll off of his tongue he feels the weight and the truth in them. 

“I was not expecting this. Expecting you,” Remus says, his body almost sagging a bit with his arms draped over Sirius’s shoulders. Sirius in this moment is more than happy to help hold him up.

“I wasn’t either,” Sirius says honestly. “But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it has been a most pleasant surprise.”

“It really has been,” Remus laughs lightly against Sirius’s ear.

“I guess this is what they mean when they say Paris is for lovers.”

“I guess it is.” 

Sirius pulls away just enough to look at Remus more directly. He wonders as he looks into Remus’s wide eyes how it is that he’s ever managed life without looking into their warmth everyday. They still his usually frenetic thoughts, calm his often overly ambitious nature, and force him to take in and enjoy the moment. He slides his hands up Remus’s sides and brings them to cup Remus’s cheeks, tilting his head just so, and Sirius leans down the few inches he needs to kiss him soundly. 

“We still have one very important task at hand,” Remus reminds as they pull apart. 

“We do,” Sirius agrees. “And I’m so happy that I have you to help me follow through with it.”

“I’m not sure I’m much help on this.”

“Just having you here with me is help enough.” Sirius places one more quick kiss into Remus’s lips then pulls away and grabs ahold of his hand. 

“Are you ready?” Remus asks, giving their hands a little bit of a swing that causes Sirius to flood with affection.

“I think I am.” Sirius turns his back on Notre Dame Cathedral and points with his free hand to the winding roads across the Seine. “We’ll start over there.”

“I shall follow your lead then,” Remus says and Sirius hopes he means forever, not just for this moment on this day. “It can’t be far. And there’s only so many buildings that would have that view point.”

“You’re right,” Sirius agrees and begins moving forward, taking them to the bridge to cross over and into the 6th Arrondisement. “And I think I know which one it is.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah.” Sirius points again. He feels his lips turn up into a smile and his cheeks flush in recognition of a memory of him and Regulus running towards the very familiar building he is just seeing a glimpse of now. “That building just peeking out above the rest with the slight pinkish hue to the stone. That’s gotta be it. I’ve never forgotten that color.”


	35. Chapter 35

**REMUS**

Even though he’s never been here before Remus knows for sure that this has to be Sirius’s Uncle Alphard’s old apartment building. He can tell by the way Sirius is holding his hand a little tighter and how his thumb is moving in a continuous loop to glide across the back of Remus’s hand where it can reach. Sirius has gone quiet as well, and Remus isn’t sure how he’s supposed to fill that space. Asking questions doesn’t feel right, nor does making any unnecessary comments regarding the regalness of the building, even if that is the correct word to describe it. 

He supposes that all it is he is meant to do in this moment is to be silent and allow Sirius the space he needs to feel this through for himself. After all, one thing Remus does know for sure is that people’s attempts to try and soothe him with words after his mother’s death so often missed the mark, and usually what he needed the most was permission to just feel. 

“Up there,” Sirius says, pointing at an eighth floor window with the hand that is not clutching onto Remus’s. “That was mine and Regulus’s bedroom.”

Remus doesn’t say anything, just looks and then turns his head to give Sirius an encouraging smile.

“Regulus loved reading on that little balcony,” Sirius continues. “He’d sit out there on that tiny ledge, one shoulder pressed against the iron bars until it was too dark to read any longer. I never understood how he could just sit still for so long.”

Remus keeps his eyes on the balcony. He tries to imagine what Sirius’s little brother would’ve looked like up there, piecing together a person he knows very little about. He figures that he must have looked a lot like Sirius, but maybe not as striking and enigmatic. The little bits of information that Remus has gotten in regards to Regulus have all indicated that he was more quiet, reserved, and not nearly the attention getter that Sirius so naturally is. 

“I bet you were a lot like that,” Sirius says solemnly, causing Remus to turn to look at him. He’s met with a pair of sad, grey eyes that have gone almost silvery in the way that they are glistening now. 

“Like what?”

“Thoughtful, quiet, and always reading something.” Sirius drops his gaze, but Remus can see a little glint of a smile creep across his lips before he does. “Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to you.”

“Well, you’re not wrong. I have been known to read on not a balcony, but a firescape on more than a few occasions.” Remus’s mind flashes to him and his mother sitting on the metal stairs hanging off of the building that they were living in when he was a child. If they craned their necks just so, they’d be able to see a wide swath of Manhattan’s skyline from where they sat in their little corner of Brooklyn. 

“He would’ve liked you,” Sirius says and brings his gaze back up to meet Remus’s. 

“I know I would’ve liked him too,” Remus assures and lets the space fill with silence again.

Together they stand hand-in-hand and take in the building. There’s really only one thing left to do, but Remus isn’t about to rush Sirius to do it, even if that means standing on this sidewalk and facing the entryway of the building all day or even into the night. When Sirius is ready, they’ll finish what they came for, and Remus will be here with him as he lays his brother to finally rest.


	36. Chapter 36

**SIRIUS**

With one hand still woven around Remus’s, Sirius uses his other to pat the small, green velvet bag containing the even smaller portion of Regulus that he was allotted. He takes in a deep and steadying breath, then pulls the bag out of his leather jacket’s pocket. “Well, I guess this is it.”

“Only when you’re ready,” Remus says to him softly and Sirius couldn’t be anymore grateful to him for it. 

“This is probably as ready as I’ll ever be,” Sirius sighs. 

Remus doesn’t say anything, just continues to stand and give Sirius the quiet space he has so desperately needed for the last nine months but has been afraid to take for himself. He wonders how it is that Remus can be so intune with what it is that he needs so easily. Or maybe this is just Remus’s natural way. Whatever it is, Sirius is beyond happy to have Remus at his side to steady him when he needs it the most.

Sirius squeezes Remus’s hand one more time, then lets it go. He runs his now free hand through his hair, giving the inky black strands a slight tug once his fingers reach the mid-strands. He lets out a deep breath then drops down onto one knee. Remus follows him to the pavement and rests a hand onto Sirius’s shoulder that causes Sirius’s growing nerves to calm, his rapidly increasing heart rate to slow down, and the tears that have been threatening to escape to freely fall.

With his cheeks dampening, Sirius begins to dig in the dirt with his fingers, creating a little hole beneath the shrubbery that lines the front of the building. All the while, Remus keeps a hand on Sirius's back, a simple gesture that let’s Sirius know that everything is going to be alright. 

He assesses the little hole that he has made and comes to the conclusion that it is deep enough for Regulus’s ashes to not be disturbed before they get a chance to soak into the soil and become a part of Paris and his eternal home. He reaches into his pocket and pulls the bag out, then begins to untie the chord holding it closed. With careful hands, he opens the packet of ashes that he’d secured inside that bag and gently sprinkles them within the soil. 

“I love you, Regulus,” he says softly. “You deserved better, and I know this doesn’t make up for everything, but I hope it’s enough for you to know how much you have always meant to me.” He slides the velvet bag back into his pocket, then begins to cover Regulus’s ashes with the misplaced soil again. “I’ll be back to visit you. Maybe I’ll even try to purchase Uncle Alphard’s place one day and we can be together again.” He wipes at his cheeks with the back of his hand and swallows around the lump in his throat as Remus begins to rub circles around his upper back. He pats at the dirt after he smoothes the last of it over. “I love you, rest easy, and we’ll see you again soon.”

Rising to his feet, Remus follows in one seamless motion, and when Sirius feels as if he’s going to fall to pieces again, he’s met with Remus’s embrace instead.


	37. Chapter 37

**REMUS**

Arriving back in New York a week later, Remus feels not like an entirely different man, but more like the man that he has slowly been becoming over the course of the last year. It’s like Lily had said when she dropped him at the airport, that perhaps the Remus he was had died, and now he’s given the space to grow into the man he’s always needed to be. There is one final step to that though, and luckily for Remus, Sirius has promised to hold him through it, just as Remus had done for Sirius when it came to saying goodbye to Regulus. 

Walking hand in hand out of the airport and into the backseat of James’s BMW— where Lily is riding shotgun— Remus can hardly contain his excitement. A week ago, it would’ve been nerves that were consuming him for the task that he’s about to embark on, but right now he feels hope. 

“So, where to?” James asks after pleasantries and introductions.

“My place,” Remus says and Sirius gives his hand a little squeeze. “For both of us.”

“I’m assuming my co-pilot knows how to get there,” James says as he holds up his and Lily’s intertwined hands from where they were resting on the center council.

“Of course I know,” Lily says sarcastically, then looks over her shoulder to give Remus a wink. “Take a left up here Potter.”

Remus watches as a giant smile brightens Lily’s already sweet and friendly face, and if James is even half the man that Sirius is, he’s beyond happy for Lily to have finally given him a chance. He scoots himself to be able to lean a little heavier against Sirius and is immediately met with a kiss into his hair.

“Are you ready?” Sirius asks softly.

“I am,” Remus says with complete surety. He loves Sirius and he has no doubt that Hope would have loved him too, and anyone and anything that Hope had ever loved, Lyall had always been true in following suit. Never being one to deny her anything, which given that most of the things she ever wanted were experiences, feelings of love and happiness, things that couldn't ever be bought, in those regards, Lyall provided them for her like the richest of men. 

After a week in Paris, chasing the ghost of his mother hand-in-hand with whom Remus is sure is the love of his life, he feels closer to her than he has since her death. As they step out of the car and make their way up the six steps to the front door of the apartment building that Remus lives in with his father, he can almost hear her voice yelling to Lyall that Remus is home. He’s not that surprised when Lyall opens the door before he can even pull his key out.

“Remus!” he says, and Remus can feel the relief in his voice at the sight of his son. And now after a week away, he feels warmed by it. 

Having met Sirius, and even though it hasn’t been much time, the thought of losing him as Lyall had lost Hope is truly terrifying, and now he understands Lyall’s plight and his trepidation when it comes to Remus. He vows at this point to not take advantage of the unconditional love of his father, and to pay it back to him in all the best ways he can. Starting with introducing him to his new boyfriend. 

“Dad,” he says as he lets go of Sirius’s hand to embrace his father. Then pulls away and says, “I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Sirius Black.”

“It’s nice to meet you, sir,” Sirius says as he extends out his hand.

Remus can only laugh in relief as he watches his father skip the handshake and pull Sirius into a tight hug instead.


	38. Chapter 38

**SIRIUS**

Sirius has never actually met anyone who he has dated parents before, and as far as he can tell, meeting Lyall Lupin is going far better than he’s ever been led to believe a situation like this can go. He genuinely likes the man and can see so much of Remus in him. It’s refreshing to see, a father and son duo that actually gets along, that supports one another. Sure, he’s seen this type of dynamic with the Potters, but it’s far different here. These two are close in a way that only shared hardships and having to work together through difficult times can create. Difficult times are not something that James Potter is familiar with, and that probably explains why Sirius has been able to find comfort and ease with Remus so quickly. He understands what it means to really struggle, but more importantly, he knows what it means to keep moving forward despite what life throws at you. And that’s what Sirius really needs, someone to remind him that things will invariably be alright.

“It was so nice to meet you, Sirius,” Lyall says at the end of the night and finally shaking Sirius’s hand before giving him another hug. “Please, bring my son by often, otherwise I fear I might never see him again.”

“Dad,” Remus says without malice while exaggeratedly rolling his eyes in his father's direction. “You act like I don’t live in this apartment with you.”

Sirius watches as Lyall looks back and forth between them, then turns to look at this son directly. “You think I was married to your mother for twenty-five years and I can’t recognize the signs of true love when I see it?”

Sirius feels the heat rise from his heart and up into his cheeks. He casts his eyes down, but still manages to catch the exasperated expression as it takes over all of Remus’s features. But Remus has nothing to say. Lyall is right of course.

“That’s what I thought,” Lyall laughs, then turns to Sirius. “Take good care of my son for me, would you?”

“Yes, sir,” Sirius says as if he’s taking a solemn oath. And maybe he is. Remus has managed to weave himself all throughout Sirius in the last seven days. He’s taken up residency inside of Sirius’s heart and filled in the cracks, strengthening him in all the places that life has managed to break him. Taking care of Remus is exactly what he plans to do from now until the end of his days. And by the way that Remus is clutching onto his hand, he knows with complete confidence that Remus intends to do the same. 

_ Fin _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated or come find me on tumblr @kattlupin 💛


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